Death and Personal History: Strategies of Identity Preservation

Unruh, David

doi:10.2307/800358

Cited by 107 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This work highlights how the creation of a legacy provides a way for people to curate and designate aspects of their life and identity that will be passed on after death [38]. In concept, a legacy is comprised of three related categories -biological legacy, material legacy, and values [1].…”

Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In practice, an individual's legacy is representative of some subset of these larger categories, and is influenced by the relationship between the dying and those who survive. Generally, people desire to be remembered positively and choose to pass on artifacts and information that reinforce that identity [38]. Despite these efforts, the lasting impact of legacy is experienced by the bereaved, who are often tasked with sorting, maintaining, remembering, and even dispossessing objects and information left behind [8].…”

Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When this concept is applied to individuals, it is comprised of some combination of intangibles, such as life experiences and values, and physical artifacts, such as houses, books, vehicles, and furniture. Though a person's legacy is not exclusively at the discretion of the person to whom it refers, the curation of one's legacy is a way in which individuals can highlight meaningful aspects of their life [38]. Through the transmission of this legacy, a person is given the opportunity for these ideas, possessions, and values to be passed on and considered by future generations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Digital artifacts as legacy

Gulotta

Odom

Forlizzi

et al. 2013

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Legacy is the meaningful and complex way in which information, values, and possessions are passed on to others. As digital systems and information become meaningfully parts of people's everyday and social relationships, it is essential to develop new insights about how technology intersects with legacy and inheritance practices. We designed three interactive systems to investigate how digital materials might be passed down in the future. We conducted in-home interviews with ten parents using the systems to provoke discussion about how technology might support or complicate their existing practices. Sessions revealed parents desired to treat their digital information in ways not fully supported by technology. Findings are interpreted to describe design considerations for future work in this emerging space.

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Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Background and Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Digital artifacts as legacy

Gulotta

Odom

Forlizzi

et al. 2013

Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As a purposeful curation of the components of one's life, a legacy is influenced by how its creator would like to be remembered. Typically, in constructing a legacy, people emphasize the artifacts and memories that highlight meaningful aspects of their life [48]. After a person's death, that legacy is then subject to the interpretations of those to whom it is left [48].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacy in the age of the internet

Gulotta

Odom

Faste

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems

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The creation of a personal legacy is a process through which information, values, and memories are passed down to future generations. This process is inherently subjective, both as a curated collection of the elements of one's life, and as an evolving form of remembrance that is subject to the interpretations of those to whom it is left. Based on directed storytelling sessions with 14 adults from a large Midwestern city in the United States, we explore users' perceptions of how their use of digital systems and information will impact how their lives are interpreted and reflected upon by their families and by future generations. Our findings describe nuances regarding how shifting notions about technological systems and the long-term accessibility of digital information impact the ways in which we share, and subsequently manage, information online. This work, explored here in the context of legacy, exposes opportunities to help users engage with their digital information through the curation of meaningful records, the dispossession of digital debris, and a reexamination of how digital systems and services influence the accessibility and lifespan of digital information.

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“…Cherished possessions can be deployed in an attempt to transcend mortality, placing them with legatees in order to reproduce, ancestralise, memorialise and donate the self (Marcoux 2001; Price, Arnould and Curasi 2000; Unruh 1983). ‘Gift wrapping ourselves’ (Marx, Solomon and Miller 2004) may likewise be a developmental imperative (Hunter and Rowles 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Safe passage of goods and self during residential relocation in later life

2011

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Techniques of possession research among older people tend to accentuate their prizing of things and their use of special dispositions to achieve the protection or ‘safe passage’ of things as they transfer to a new owner. Such efforts on behalf of possessions may also be undertaken to perpetuate the self. To study the care of things and self in a wider context, we examined older people’s repertoire of disposition strategies during episodes of household relocation and downsizing. We analysed the narratives of persons in 75 households in the Midwestern United States of America. People indeed told stories about the safe passage of cherished possessions – their initiative to place things, appreciation by new owners, and attempts to project the values or memory of the giver. Such accounts of special placements, however, dotted rather than dominated recollections of the move. More commonly, large quantities of items were passed via non-specific offers of possessions to others who may volunteer to take them. This allowed people to nonetheless express satisfaction that their possessions had found appreciative owners. Even though our interviews did not disclose extensive attempts at self-transmission, whole-house downsizing may affirm the self in another way: as conscientious about the care of things. Such affirmation of the present self as accomplished and responsible can be seen as a positive adaptation to the narrowing life world.

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Death and Personal History: Strategies of Identity Preservation

Cited by 107 publications

References 24 publications

Digital artifacts as legacy

Digital artifacts as legacy

Legacy in the age of the internet

Safe passage of goods and self during residential relocation in later life

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