“When your heart stops beating, you’ll keep Tweeting.”
That’s the slogan of a new startup company that is slated to launch in March. LivesOn is being advertised as “your social afterlife” and will analyze your tweets and continue posting similar content for you once you have died.
When I originally read about this a few days ago in The New York Times, I was absolutely horrified.
Seriously—I’m a fan of innovation, new ideas and creativity—but really?
This new service just straight up scares me and makes me wonder who had the incredibly stupid idea of extending your social media usage beyond death. Is there a longing or a need in humans that I’m unaware of that is fulfilled by this service? Are they trying to create a need? I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard someone say, “Gee, I just really wish that there was some way for me to keep tweeting after I’m dead.”
So why is this service even real? I just don’t get it. How is this even close to appropriate, timely, or important? I can’t even begin to think of all of the ethical and philosophical implications that a life-extending product like this has.
While it may be getting easier and easier to create products, companies and apps with platforms like Wahooly or Kickstarter, I firmly believe that just because we can do something or we come up with an idea for something DOES NOT necessarily mean we should. In an age when it seems that everyone is encouraged to be entrepreneurial, do you think we should all try to invent something new and disregard any consequences?
I’ll be anxious to see what happens as LivesOn starts gaining users and attention. Will people be creeped out once they see ghost tweets? I know I sure will.
What do you think? Will you be signing up?
Tweet me your thoughts @jtleeman.
