We're All Making History

Originally posted on April 27, 2019 at DaTechGuy Blog.

Jean Miélot blogging.

A tad morbid, but this is something to consider, and not just with Facebook.

The number of dead Facebook users could outnumber the living by 2070, leaving a vast archive of such historical importance that archivists should be brought in to conserve the data, Oxford University has said.

Currently the global social media site has around 2.27 billion members, but 1.4 billion will die before 2100, according to the new calculations.

For certain, the majority of those now living will be gone by then.

It means that within around 50 years the number of dead could pass the living, in a milestone that has important implications for what should happen with such a huge digital legacy. (snip)

Currently, after a person dies a Facebook account is memorialized unless the user has selected “delete after death” in their settings. The word “remembering” is placed next to the profile name and a “legacy contact” is appointed to look after the page.

It allows friends and family to view public posts made before their death and also post memories.

The OII [Oxford Internet Institute] is calling on Facebook to invite historians, researchers and archivists to devise a way to curate the archives so they are not lost to future generations.

Personally, I have designated three family members to handle my Facebook account should I suddenly move on to the next world.

Reading this piece, I began thinking of all the connections I’ve made over nearly two decades – several of whom I’ve met personally and cared about very much – who are no longer with us. I’ve been blogging since 2003, so the list is becoming longer. Such is life … and death. And here’s something else to think about.

Mr. Ohman [doctoral candidate for the OII] added: “Data from social media differs from traditional historical data, not only in terms of the content, but also in terms of the quantity.

“What we know about people in the past is basically based on men with power, who could preserve information about themselves to future generations.

“But we know way less about the thoughts and daily lives of the millions of women, workers and other marginalized groups in history. With social media as an historical asset, we have a chance not to repeat this mistake.”

I’m not one to worry about what the world will think of me while I’m still breathing, much less after I’m gone. But I think that this is a great justification for Facebook, etc. to allow historians into its archives. Thinking about my own family, I know almost nothing about the personalities and thoughts of my ancestors for obvious reasons. But present and future generations can get a glimpse into the lives of their 21st century forebears not only through Social Media, but from those of us who blog.

I like that idea. And, though I have no children, I’d like my Nth grand-nieces and -nephews to know more about me than I know about those who came before me.

Ain’t technology great?

Oh, by the way, be sure to regularly download your social media and blog archives. You never know if you’re about to be de-platformed by those who want to keep the making of history all to themselves.

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Numbering Our Days

12 So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

13 Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.

14 O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

15 Make us glad according to the days wherein thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil.

16 Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.

17 And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.

Psalm 90:12-17 (KJV)

Columnist Charles Krauthammer, 68, will probably die of abdominal cancer. He’s a medical doctor

and has been a quadriplegic since having an accident during his first year in medical school.

Designer Kate Spade and celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain committed suicide in the past week. I’ll let others talk about depression and the present state of their souls.

The deaths and impending death of these public figures has, naturally, provoked a great deal of sadness. But what it has magnified to me is how little time they and the rest of us have to accomplish whatever it is that God put us here to do.

I've been thinking of and talking to God about this for a number of months, ever since I discovered that an old boyfriend died last year of colon cancer. He was 57.

When we broke up, I was the bad guy.

I hadn’t seen him in many years, so after I read his public obituary which named his employer, I took a chance and wrote to them just to see if they would give me a sense of his work life. It was like hitting the jackpot. They sent me a very personal obit with much more info than the public one. These people loved him and are grieving very much for him.

My old love had retired from a very accomplished Cold War era USAF career and ended up as a math teacher and an accountant for an organization that helps teenagers and young adults get their GEDs. Some of his students were prisoners.

Like Krauthammer, he played the hand he was dealt and played it well. The two men made other people’s lives better and did it in less than seven decades using the personal gifts that God gave them.

I am in awe of this.

In Genesis, we read about Adam and his pre-flood descendants who lived hundreds of years, many close to 1000. We live 100 and change at best and what do we do with it? Even Spade and Bourdain used a portion of their very few years to bring a certain amount of enjoyment to others. That they became rich doing so is irrelevant, unless one remembers that the ability to get wealth is a blessing from God.

And so what are observers to take from this? It’s this: that each of us has some gift from God that we are to exercise to His purposes. It might not be a public purpose of which millions or even hundreds of people are aware. It might be a task known only to Him, but each of us “instinctively” knows what it is. We may have to plow through the circumstances of a broken body – or a broken heart – but the key word is through.

This is simple. And hard. But this is what I believe that God wants from each one of us.

UPDATE: Charles Krauthammer passed away on June 21.

Every Tuesday and Saturday, I blog at the award-winning DaTechGuyBlog. Latest posts: DHS Makes a Blogger Watchlist.

When you hit the Tip Jar, it helps pays for: A Roof Over My Head, Food, Gasoline, Car Insurance, the writing of My Next Book(s), and Utilities--especially Internet and COFFEE! Yes, coffee is a utility.