
Facebook is a growing and unstoppable digital graveyard - dan1234
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160313-the-unstoppable-rise-of-the-facebook-dead
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binarymax
I tried, and failed, to 'memorialize' my fathers Facebook page. It became more
and more full of crap from unhinged friends and distant relatives posting
things they think he would have liked. I left Facebook over a year ago, and
this is one of the things that drove me away. I could no longer stand seeing
posts of shit videos with the tag line "Donny would have loved this!", just so
the poster could score some likes from the clan.

~~~
StevePerkins
That's truly awful, but can't people still post to 'memorialized' pages
anyway? I have a dear friend who passed several years ago, and I believe her
page was memorialized... but people still post "Miss you" messages every year
on her birthday.

~~~
beeboop
That, along with "Donny would have liked this" posts both seem rather nice to
me. It's seems a little cynical to assume they're doing it for likes from
other family members. I think it's a nice and natural way to reminisce with
your family about those who have passed on. I think it'd be heart warming if
people posted about me on my FB years after I passed away.

~~~
ethanbond
It is cynical, but it's also some well-founded cynicism, given that people do
such wild things for the Likes.

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dave2000
Yep, always a nice surprise when you're using your phone, decide to check
Facebook and get a "your year in Facebook" featuring your now-dead best
friend, and an ex-girlfriend. Thanks for that, Facebook.

~~~
zdkl
"Inadvertent Algorithmic Cruelty", welcome to the future.

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TwoFx
Randall Munroe of xkcd had a (humorous) look at when the number of dead people
on Facebook surpasses the number of living people a few years ago:
[https://what-if.xkcd.com/69/](https://what-if.xkcd.com/69/)

~~~
jacquesm
[http://jacquesmattheij.com/deadbook-the-long-term-
facebook](http://jacquesmattheij.com/deadbook-the-long-term-facebook)

------
jchrome
I think the last quote of the article is telling:

"The truth," writes Borges, "is that we all live by leaving behind."

Honestly, why can't we all heed this advice and just leave Facebook behind?

The second we all stop looking at it the second it stops being so important. I
hardly ever check FB anymore.

~~~
komali2
I don't understand how this is relevant - it's a technology people use to stay
connected, share photos, and communicate. Is there some issue you have with
this? The article wasn't commenting on the moral implications of facebook or
even the beat-to-death privacy issues.

~~~
jchrome
Please explain how it is irrelevant. If you cease paying attention to FB, then
your deceased loved ones no longer continue this "digital life" as the article
puts it.

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elcapitan
In the future, people will only be dead for a short moment, then a Facebook AI
will take over and keep on posting and replying, generating new photos and
liking your posts.

~~~
scholia
Or even without Facebook. From the linked BBC story:

 _Consider a robot that was commissioned by the entrepreneur Martine
Rothblatt, called Bina 48. The robot is almost identical in appearance to
Rothblatt’s wife, and contains a database of her speech and memories.

Rothblatt, author of Virtually Human and the CEO of United Therapeutics, is a
transhumanist whose motto is "death is optional". Rothblatt foresees a near-
future world in which the dead can be reanimated thanks to mind clone software
that can allow avatars to think and respond and be in an eerily similar way to
those they’re cloning._

~~~
Aleman360
Real life Black Mirror

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cm2187
A few years ago I saw appearing in my facebook feed a link shown as shared by
my deceased father, a month after he passed away.

I still wonder if his account had been compromised or if facebook was
disguising sponsored links as shared by one of your contacts. Either way not
very tasteful.

~~~
empressplay
It was probably an app that had posting permissions on the account.

I think if you notify Facebook that the person has died (and provide some sort
of proof) they switch the account over to "memorial" status (which can't post,
etc.)

~~~
parfe
I needed zero proof to memorialise the profile of a deceased friend. Didn't
even have the exact date of his death, let alone any documentation. It had
been over a year, so I guess Facebook took a look at the profile activity and
wall posts and decided it was a legit request.

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Lasher
It's been over 6 years now since my father passed away and still, every year,
Facebook sends me a notification that it's his birthday. How many years
without someone logging in before Facebook stops considering them a "user"?

I did try to memorialize the page, they wanted me to fax his ID and death
certificate, not going to happen, so the page will sit out there forever or
until they have a change in policy I suppose.

~~~
csydas
To be fair, long absences from Facebook are likely not uncommon. Personally, I
signed up when I was in University and it was restricted as such, stopped
using it pretty much immediately, and only very recently after moving abroad
did I start using it again to keep in touch with friends and colleagues,
meaning a gap of almost 10 years.

During that time, Facebook wasn't shy about reminding me that I wasn't using
it, and frequently sent emails suggesting content on Facebook I might want to
see. An auto-hibernate or shut down for accounts seems unlikely as it's
contrary to their attempts at retention.

I think death is just something that Facebook hasn't really taken the time to
establish a good public protocol for; per your post, the behind the scenes
protocol of "fax us an ID and death certificate" is probably outside the
comfort zone of a lot of people. Maybe it would work for people to establish a
series of emergency contacts and grant the contacts a page where a certain
number (at least more than one) are needed to confirm the passing of a person,
at which point the page moves into the memorialized mode. The process should
also have safeguards to be reversible, just in case of pranks, and allow
alternative proof methods just in case the contacts are unreachable/unwilling
to confirm.

~~~
jrnichols
I wonder how many dead people are still showing up as active users on dating
sites like match.com/etc and are still getting messages from people.

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darkclarity
This is the primary reason why I deleted my Facebook account. I couldn't stand
the thought of being run over some day and having no way of stopping the
creation of a virtual memorial owned by Facebook's stakeholders. I'd be
turning in my grave.

------
mirimir
At some point, people will indeed continue "living" online. It will be a
gradual process, I suspect. People will increasingly rely on AI to handle
routine stuff. To fake paying attention. And gradually, those AIs will become
indistinguishable from their owners.

~~~
voltagex_
The Black Mirror episode called "Be Right Back" deals with this in an
unnerving sci-fi context

~~~
mirimir
Thanks. Missed that series. I haven't watched much video in recent years. I've
been reading a lot more. Mostly SF. But I do recall liking how Caprica handled
this.

AI augmentation could get very strange. Imagine an AlphaGo like approach to
becoming better at your profession. Maybe as a politician, even. You just read
from the prompter. I'm reminded of Primer, where characters were repeating
dialog from recordings.

~~~
voltagex_
Worth watching that one episode - but be warned, it messed with my head for a
while afterwards.

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wimagguc
I've been thinking of this for a while: if you share quite a lot of things
about your life, then, a good enough AI a few decades from now can learn -
well, _you_.

'What would you ask from grandma if she were still alive?' becomes 'ask your
grandma now'

~~~
zemvpferreira
That's the premise for a great Black Mirror episode:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Right_Back_(Black_Mirror)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Right_Back_\(Black_Mirror\))

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faceoflies
Yeah Facebook honestly does suck, it basically becoming MySpace.

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noonespecial
Archaeologists will uncover the ancient memory talismans known as "hardisks"
in the odd burial vaults the ancestors called "serv-are-ooms".

The Facebook of the Dead.

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basicplus2
surely Facebook could simply hive off accounts not logged into after say one
year.

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jmsdnns
They should get facebook.rip.

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DyslexicAtheist
one of my friends died in a climbing accident in 2011 in Austria. LinkedIn
still asks me to endorse him for his skills.

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flurdy
and = an ?

Should the bbc title not be "Facebook is a growing an unstoppable digital
graveyard" ?

Not being pedantic but not sure if that typo is intentional.

~~~
radiorental
No, not sure where you got your wires crossed but you can have either;

Facebook is a growing and unstoppable digital graveyard

or

Facebook is growing an unstoppable digital graveyard

but not

Facebook is a growing an unstoppable digital graveyard

~~~
flurdy
Ah yes. missed the 'a' :)

Though option 2 in your list would have been a concise and good enough title.

