Self-representation

The topic of self-representation on internet (especially ater death), though morbid, is quite intreguing. Would you want your facebook wall to disappear after your death and your account shut down or would you actually prefer that people continue to leave you a messages.

The first time I gave though to this topic was after the 2005 earth quake in Pakistan which left around 75 thousand people dead. I saw many messages being forwarded to me on Orkut ( a popular social networking site in pakistan) from friends of the dead asking to leave a message of condolence and a prayer for the person who passed away. At the same time there was quite some bickering on the profile of the deceased by people saying its disrecpectful.

Recently I came acorss a photographic exhibition dealing with the same topic called 'The travelers' part of the 'Ik RIP' project. The photogapher took portrait photos of deceased people to try and distinguish what traits make us alive. I have not gone to the exhibition ( not sure if its something I would liek to see) but the photos I have seen online, the people seem to be in a calm sleep some even look like they are smiling. The photographer not only snapped the pics she also learnt about the person's life story from their realtives. Their story is not inclued in the exhition, I think that would have been more moving ( also disturbing) to have the life story with the pic. If the stories were there I might have considered to see the exhibition.

As part of the project here is a website where you an let the webmaster know what to do with your online profile afte you are dead. But how do they find out you have passed away? It seems quite an extensive project with different aspets e.g teddy bear and football shoe shaped coffins.

To read more about the exhibition visit the following links.

http://www.mediamatic.net/page/69624/en

http://www.mediamatic.net/page/67716/en

I havent decided what I would want to happen to my online profiles....I think if im gone im gone its not something I need to think about. But if someone close to me passes away I would prefer not to see their profile anymore, a profile is only representative as long as someone is acitve and using it. if the person is gone forever it would only serve as a bucket of immense sadness.