Those who die on the earth will disappear into the dust. But what happens to those who die in the virtual world? The research report by two researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute, part of Oxford University, discusses some important questions in this regard. Researchers Carl J. Ohman and David Watson predict that Facebook, the social media service, will become the largest digital cemetery in 50 years, by 2070. They present two unusual possibilities in this regard.
The first of these is if no one has signed up for Facebook in 2018, the second. If Facebook continues its current 13 percent growth rate globally. Of course, the real situation is between the two.
According to the first mentioned possibility, 140 crore Facebook users will die before 2100. If so, by 2070 the death toll will be higher than the living.
In the second scenario - if Facebook's growth rate continues at 13% - the number of dead users will reach 490 crore by the end of this century. This is only the assumption of both of them that these observations will change in the future as our digital culture changes. But such an observation is not for anything else. When so many people die, who owns the vast amount of data they all create? How can they be handled in the interest of the relatives and friends of the deceased and be used by future historians?
These questions are just beginning to be asked. Researchers also say that cats need to be included in any precautionary measures against the virus. Managing the digital remains of the deceased will also affect others who use social media. Because everyone has to die once they have a large amount of data left with their physical possessions. There is currently a system on Facebook when people die. A Legacy Contact Facebook allows you to take charge of his account and turn that account into a monument to him instead of an active profile. Facebook recently said that the accounts of the deceased are being visited by around 3 crore people every month.
David Watson, co-author of the study, urges social media outlets to handle this large amount of data left over from all those who have died, including historians, archivists and archaeologists.
Never before has there been such a large historical archive of human behavior and culture. Controlling it is tantamount to controlling history.
The researchers based their study on data from the United Nations' Population and Mortality Rates.
