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24/03/2015

My Answer to: "Why Are There so many Services to Preserve Virtual "Tombs" of Yourself Online?"

I answered this question elsewhere and thought I'll post my answer here as well: 

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My short answer to the query: "Why are there so many services to preserve virtual "tombs" of yourself online?" is: because we can

My longer answer is: In the past, only artists, the rich, the famous and/or the powerful had a chance to commemorate themselves in a way which would hopefully preserve their memory for all eternity, or at least a part of it. 

In the past, only the rich could afford to be buried in a mausoleum, only the powerful could build palaces and monuments, only the famous assumed they were leaving behind a legacy rich enough to be long remembered after their death and only artists knew they were earning an eternal place for themselves through their creations. Pyramids were not built for each and every member of ancient Egyptian society, when you stop to think about it. 

Here is a recent example: an Israeli artist, Ziv Rubinstein, released his latest CD. This is the print screen of his Facebook announcement of it:


In English he only wrote
"Sorry for the delay, It's here", 
But in Hebrew he wrote:
"Yes! Another arrow shot towards eternity! The new CD is being released today". 

Today, we all get a shot towards eternity. We can all horde our digital legacy, without having to be rich, famous or powerful to do so. By preserving our online self we're preserving meaningful, significant parts of our digital persona - and our digital persona is a pretty big part of who we are. 
We're making digital mausoleums, virtual pyramids and online monuments for ourselves in hope to be remembered for who we were (or how we presented ourselves to the world). It's even better than a statue - not to mention being a lot more handy and way cheaper - because our virtual tomb will contain so much more of our essence. 

While platforms could fall out of favor (MySpace) and websites could disappear, most of us entertain the illusion the internet does and will last forever, and hopefully, with bits of us in it.

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