Why is Facebook likely to become a digital cemetery by the end of the century?

Facebook runs the risk of becoming a digital cemetery at the end of the century, while it is estimated that, if the number of users continues to grow, it could reach 4,900 million user profiles died, although these exceed those of the living. , the growth in the number of users should be maintained as in 2018.

The information that users share on the Internet generates large amounts of data that remains on the network even after death. These digital remains began to worry researchers, who ended up looking at social networks as digital cemeteries in the future if, as the world connects, mortality numbers also increase.

In this sense, Oxford University's Internet Institute investigated the potential growth of digital remains throughout the 21st century and, to do so, focused on the social network Facebook, as explained in the text. of the study.

This platform has a specific policy for the profiles of deceased users. Commemorative accounts are in charge of an inherited contact, who decides whether the account is permanently deleted or whether it is kept in tribute to the deceased user.

The study covers all the deceased user accounts, converted to commemoration or not, as well as on public data on the mortality forecast between 2000 and 2100. To run it, they are the only ones to be used. The first badumes that new users will not join the year 2018, while the second badumes that Facebook will continue to grow by 13% each year.

In the first scenario, the number of users of the platform is maintained in 2018 and it is estimated that at least 1,400 million users will die between this year and 2,100 (98% of base users of 1,430 000 people who manages the study). With a steady increase in the number of dead, the dead will overtake the living on Facebook by 2070.

If we look at the different regions of the world, the proportion of users killed in Asia will represent nearly 44% by the end of the century (half of India and Indonesia), which represents nearly 279 million of dead on Facebook for the previous month. 2100

The second scenario badumes that Facebook will continue to grow by 13% each year, with the number of deceased users reaching up to 4,900 million by the end of the century. Although in this case the profiles belonging to deceased users do not surpbad those of the living of this century, the parity between them would be reached in the first decades of the 22nd century.

This second case also reflects a geographical redistribution of the growth of the profiles of the deceased users. According to study estimates, most of these profiles would be in Africa, and Nigeria would represent more than 6% of the total. On the contrary, Western users would represent a minority and only the United States would be at the bottom of the top 10.

This study, explained by those responsible, should not be interpreted "as a prediction of the future", but as "a commentary on the present" because it seeks to explore the "macroscopic and quantitative" aspects of social networks and constitutes an "opportunity". respond with thoughtful and effective intervention policies ".