The Internet Graveyard
Jolene Chen
We create so many versions of ourselves in everything we do, yet it is the traces we leave online that will remain the longest. “The Internet never forgets,” but at the same time, the Internet will never stop growing—but there is comfort in knowing that you and your avatars will be swept along the ever-changing zeitgeist.
Until our death.
What will happen to our virtual doppelgängers after we die? They may risk unwanted custody through the hands of friends, relatives, or even strangers.
We keep ancient artifacts in temperature-controlled rooms so that generations onwards may have the privilege of viewing it in its most perfect state. Maybe our blogs should be treated the same—not sealed in a vacuum, per se, but looked after, preserved. Frozen in time just the way we left them.
The Internet Graveyard is a digital crypt. It is a website and social media profile archival service that includes a user manual, a set of cards aimed to provoke thoughts worth memorializing, and a webpage tailored to the individual’s digital life.
This project originally started out as a tongue-in-cheek answer to the question: What happens to our social media profiles after we die? The short answer is that we can archive them by designating a virtual space that will eventually act as a mausoleum of our digital presences. The reality, however, is much more complicated. Through branding, archiving, and data visualization, The Internet Graveyard is an exploration of death in the digital age.