Legacy in the age of the internet

Abstract

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.

Social Media Perceptions of Legacy-Making: A Qualitative Analysis

“…15 Although the social media users were anonymous, this has not been a drawback in human-computer interaction studies. 9,15 Past reports indicate that users of Slashdot represent those who are technologically inclined and have advanced levels of education. 13,16 The Institu-tional Review Board at Northwestern reviewed our project and determined this study to be nonhuman subject research.…”

“…2 Expanding upon the conceptual foundations of legacy-making, several initiatives have pioneered digital approaches in tandem with the growth of digital data. [6][7][8][9] However, limited evidence currently exists on the breadth and depth of what might be part of these systems and who ought to participate. With the advent of digital legacy-making, social media has become an apt platform to assess the nature of the illness experience.…”

Metadating

“…Curatorial services could serve to address the agency in data-driven systems to support a human voice, and the negotiation, downplaying or defense of data that we saw participants engage in during their dates. Literature on digital possessions and legacy frequently highlights the value and need for curation [32,53,65] towards preservation of, and meaning-making with, digital content. Clearly while some data may well be cherishable, much is ephemeral.…”

Reorganize Your Blogs: Supporting Blog Re-visitation with Natural Language Processing and Visualization

“…Interactive systems encouraging re-visitation and reflection have been widely studied over the past decade [3,26]. One thread of studies explored people's daily practices in preserving reflective items, such as personal archives [27], mementos [28], and digital legacies [29]. Technologies for gathering and managing digital personal items, referred to as life-logging systems, are recommended for reminiscence and reflection [2,9,30,31].…”