In today’s world, most of us have some kind of digital footprint—social media profiles, tagged photos, LinkedIn headshots, even personal brands. But imagine someone who passes away with no online or digital presence at all. No Instagram, no tweets, not even videos to recall on your phone—just memories and maybe at most some printed photos, which have become more obsolete as time goes on.
Is that a quiet blessing—freedom from the permanence and pressure of the digital age? Or is it a tragedy to have nothing online to remember them by, especially when we’re so used to preserving people through screens?
Until fairly recently (in the grand scheme of human existence), this was the norm. But does it feel different now?
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A digital footprint is arguably more fleeting than physical artifacts. Technological changes can quickly make digital information inaccessible and there is no incentive for the companies that own the platforms to maintain accessible information longer than its profitable lifetime. Ultimately, very little of any single human’s life will persist unless others actively preserve it. It’s the main reason we have museums, art galleries, libraries and other repositories of historical artifacts.
Nah, I print out photos about once every 2 years for things I really wanna hold onto. Especially of my mother who has since passed. I think tangible things are really important… Also, sometimes I see some true brainrot sht on the internet and think “this is our legacy?”
It’s nearly impossible not to have a digital footprint between mutual government/private sector databases. If you have a job and pay taxes, you have a digital footprint regardless if you want one or not.
i’ve been very careful to leave none… never had facebook, instagram, linkedin…if i google my name, nothing should come up except maybe some old tournament wins
There’s way too much information on the internet for any digital trace to be meaningful. Also to someone who is grieving, physical objects will probably be much more meaningful than a digital trace.
What’s the point of my mother leaving behind digital footprints… to you?
If she meant something to me, I’ll remember and I might tell her grand children.
I think the bigger problem/issue is that it’s inevitable that you are leaving some echoes behind whether you like it or not. There’s a full dossier on you floating around with your demographics and confirmation whether you fit – what gas you buy, what media you are watching, where you are spending your money. That stuff exists whether you want it to or not.
As far as I know my sister who is 13 years older than me has no presence online. This is because of her awful fat fuck boyfriend basically controlling her life in such a way that she can’t get away and wouldn’t even know where to start.
It’s sad. I call him that for a reason, because he lied and said I called him fat when I was 7. I distinctly remember the day because I had ALSO been accused of doing something I didn’t do at school. I know how to hold a grudge, I’m 31 now.
He’s going to die soon probably and idk what she’s gonna do. They live in his mom’s barn. I heard he’s gotten fatter.
It’s a miserable existence to leave no footprints behind. The fact the world is as virtual as physical it’s miserable to leave no footprints behind you digitally, if you leave meaningful footprints behind you in the real sand of earth that could be argued however.
I have a little digital footprint as possible on purpose. I couldn’t care less about being remembered, and if I did a think that was worth remembering, I’d want that thing to be the focus, not me.
Neither. I didn’t care about my “legacy” before the digital record and I still don’t. There’s enough of a digital record that someone could look me up and see that I am probably who I say I am, and the rest, doesn’t seem to matter.