Connecting the Dots / An Agency Blog

Monday morning coming down. It seems that Vancouver has made a prompt return to the rainy weather that it’s so well known for after a two week long heat wave. Which brings me to the hilarity of the fact that I have spent most of my morning researching death, or in this case, death and the internet. Not a very nice topic I know, but with something as entrenched in life as death is, it’s a kind of a necessary one, as you’ll soon find out.

You see, at Engine Digital, we spend a lot of time crafting not only our clients’ identity online but our own identities as well (we’re what you call heavy users), but what happens when those identities cease to exist? Think about it, the internet supposedly lasts forever, and we don’t see any evidence of that not being the case any time soon. Comments on blog posts you made in 2001 are still sitting there, your Flickr photos, your 6 half started blogs, your Facebook profile that has pictures of your 3 month pizza and beer binge when you finally got out of that crushing relationship that nearly crushed you. Even this blog post! (now that’s a frightening thought) It’s all going to be on the internet, even when you’re not.

So how do you want to be remembered? What do you want your online identity to be like when you’ve passed on? You may not have asked yourself this question, but it might be a good idea to ponder it just for a moment while it’s raining outside, because soon enough the sun will shine, and you’ll forget about it, thankfully.

I’m not the only one with my head in the dark clouds today. While we’ve bounced the idea of an online Will service around the studio in jest on more than a few occasions, there’s a fascinating article over at PSFK about the subject, and an outline of services that deal with such untimely matters as death and the online community that is left behind. Give it a read and you’ll realize that with the proliferation of Web 2.0 what to do with a loved ones online assets is quickly becoming just as important as the assets one acquires IRL.

The obvious solution to all this uncertainty is to leave passwords behind with someone you trust with some instructions citing the deletion of your online social endeavors. Legacy, however, is a tough line to walk. What is great, and what is not, and how time affects the perception of such things can be a difficult and taxing venture on the friends and loved ones who have been left behind to sort through it all. Which reminds me of Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial. It was deemed unworthy by the Austrian born author and was to be destroyed by his friend Max Brod if Kafka should die. Brod, after reading it, decided to posthumously publish it instead. The Trial, although unfinished, is now regarded as one of Kafka’s greatest works. Here’s hoping you’re so lucky.

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