We can safely predict that sometime in the future there will be more social media profiles belonging to dead than living people. In this work, we begin by characterizing the cultural meaning of the technological affordances that social media institutions have already associated with profiles that belong to dead people. We analyze current practices and we present future trends under the scope of the remediation theory 1, which suggests that at least initially, new media practices are just a mimesis of existing practices. In particular, we examine Facebook, which has already introduced several options for user profiles that belong to dead users. Finally, we raise awareness about novel technological and cultural issues that have been neglected or are not in the interests of social media institutions.

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Chorianopoulos, K. 2018. Immortality and resurrection of the digital self. Proceedings of the Digital Culture & AudioVisual Challenges (DCAC) Interdisciplinary Creativity in Arts and Technology, Ionian University, 4.   BibTeX