emma's Blog: What You'll Find Out About Me After I'm Gone!
February 8, 2008 at 17:25Journalists are turning to Facebook to find out about people after they're gone. What would they find out about me?
I was reading an article in the Vancouver Sun, about a teenage boy who died in Surrey. Apart from feeling so sorry for his family, I also felt completely freaked out by the idea that the Sun's writers seemed to have found most of their info on Facebook and Nexopia, another social media site. The boy's online profiles contained information about hobbies and sports, which is all now part of how he's being remembered. Yipes, if people relied on social media sites to find out about me ... what would they think??
First of all I guess they'd think I was busy. Too busy to spend much time on Facebook. Or maybe they'd think my few & far between Facebook contributions meant I was just lazy. Or maybe they'd think I just didn't spend much time line. Who knows.
I wonder if the boy who died in Surrey ever imagined that the fact that he thinks curling is a dumb sport would be one of the few things people would know about him after he was gone. Do his parents feel OK about his online profiles being an information source for journalists? I guess, as with everything we post online, we have to remember that once it's out there, it's out there ... even if we're not!!
