As is usual I was falling in and out of sleep on the train home and for some reason I had this little epiphany...
"Social networking sites will eventually become the worlds largest cemeteries".
Quite a statement.
Weirdly enough, that line came to me before I actually thought about the words.
Let's just take Facebook as one example of many.
Now with that site, as far as I'm aware, once a person has set up an account you can't actually completely delete that account.
You can erase all the information/photos etc should you wish but the account remains active.
So what happens when that person keels over?
Seriously - think about that for a minute. It's kind of eerie.
Most people don't share passwords with friends or loved ones (although I do) so if they suddenly kick the bucket they just er... remain.
They stay behind to haunt the lonely, intangible land of cyberspace - forever.
Therefore you are going to have potentially millions of people sending friend requests to the dead.
Even as you read this people are trying to track down ex school friends, ex lovers, ex colleagues and long lost family members who are all dead.
You are going to find people that haven't updated their "status" for years because they've long ago returned to the dirt.
People will remain smiling in photos, sharing old jokes with friends, you'll know what they used to enjoy musically, learn about film preferences, past relationships, sexual preferences, desires, hopes, dreams etc etc....while at the moment you are reading it they will be caring about nothing at all.Just a thought.
This right here was taken by the incredible Rachel Watson - and yes that is a real skull. She's called Elsie and we discovered her after I crawled under some trees on my stomach in the ancient cemetary behind our house.
It's older than Facebook but won't be for too much longer.
This is all true folks.
Sorry about the downer.
Go listen to the Skelton Music EP and wonder how many of the people on the first track are now internet ghosts.
GRAB IT HERE
Damn I need a drink.....
empathy re the work situation. same here basically. Social work is like spinning 24 plates whilst your pants are on fire and the phone is ringing and you need the toliet very very badly.
ReplyDeleteIf we have any co-tenants in the universe, I hope they can understand what leads us to try to reach out to others and why places like facebook exist.
Heads up Bro, your songs and art are ice pops on a very hot summers day.
Hey thanks a lot man (lady?)... really appreciate the kind words. Keeps me going after a day like today. I have lot more to come pretty soon.
ReplyDeleteI know we all like the sweet anonymity of the web however I can't help this... who the hell are you?
I fully expect never to know.
Did not know you were a social worker, makes two of us, I am working with with a young person hell bent on doing damage to herself and me at the moment (literally, hard job to get a balance. Remember the good days
ReplyDeleteWeird, I had a similar thought and blogged about it last week.
ReplyDeletehttp://showcasejase.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-see-dead-people.html