Against the Algorithm

The Digital Domain Is the Most Mortal of All

Social media and digital storage are radically changing our concept of time and consciousness of death, writes Peter Jukes

Forget doomscrolling social media. Prepare to be trolled by the dead.

It’s probably happened to most of us who have lost a relative, friend, or colleague. Out of the blue comes a calendar alert reminding you of a now defunct birthday, an unread message you regret not replying to, or a cheerful photo album montage of the departed – randomly entering your feed like a thoughtless ghost.

This online haunting is only going to increase as the number of dead occupying cyberspace begins to outnumber the living.

The problem is not new. In 2014, the web developer Eric Meyer was sent a cheerful little montage in his Facebook ‘Year in Review’, framing a photograph of his six-year-old daughter, Rebecca, with cartoon balloons and streamers. She had died that summer.