Dead will outnumber the living on Facebook
THE number of dead Facebook users will outnumber the living by 2070, leaving a trove of data of such historical importance that archivists should be brought in to conserve it, 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.
It means that within about 50 years, the number of dead will pass the living, in a milestone which has important implications for what should happen with such a huge digital legacy.
Currently, after a person dies a Facebook account is automatically memorialised 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.
By 2100, the number of deceased profiles could reach as high as 4.9 billion and would represent a huge chunk of the 21st century’s heritage.
Carl Ohman, a doctoral candidate from the Oxford internet Institute (OII) and lead author, warned there were problems with one commercial company holding the largest archive of human behaviour ever assembled.
“It may be of enormous benefit to future generations, and to historians especially,” said Mr Ohman.
“However, Facebook is a private company and is thus guided by what is commercially, not historically, valuable. The problem is not that Facebook is a commercial company, it is rather the increasing concentration of historical data: too few control too much.”
The OII is calling on Facebook to invite historians, researchers and archivists to devise a way to curate the archives. David Watson, coauthor at the OII, added: “This is not just about finding solutions that will be sustainable for the next couple of years, but possibly for many decades ahead.”
The story goes that Virgil, not having quite revised his epic work, left instructions that it should be burnt at his death. Fortunately for Western culture, his wish was ignored and the Aeneid saved. Today’s problem is not that of unwise burning but the difficulty of preserving material that exists in a digital code instead of on bits of vellum or paper. It should be a fabulous mine of riches for future historians. As we report today, 1.4 billion Facebook accounts alone will be left behind by deceased users by 2070. Their contents will by then be an infinite muniment room stuffed with the images, hopes, follies and ephemera of a past age. Things left on Facebook by our younger selves may be embarrassing or idiotic, but they embody the most valuable historical record – the part people would prefer forgotten.