Why My Deceased Aunt Might Have Benefited from Social Media

For most of her life, my great aunt lived in a world that relied on typewriters, slide-rules, and notebooks (the paper type). To the best of my knowledge, she never owned a computer and died in the middle 90s before the Internet came into its own. She did not have any children and her husband had passed away years earlier. She kept a diary of sorts--as written snippets on yearly calendars (which she never threw away), in notepads, on receipts, and in other, unlikely places. These thoughts represented who she was---her dreams, beliefs, ideas, and montages of her daily life.  

At the same time, she lived alone. We only visited her a few times that I recall, perhaps other family members went to see her more often. She did have cousins and nephews who resided close to her home; however, for all of that, she seemed like a lonely person--at least that is what I recall. And perhaps her loneliness (if she truly was lonely) derived from living in a house full of memories without the ability to interact with society often enough or perhaps due to the fact that her circle of friends was too small to replace the diaphanous memories with new, solid experiences.

When she passed away in the mid-90's her estate was split between several family members. Perhaps the family did keep some items as "mementos." I am sure that at least one or two of these people still have a photo or two of my great aunt and her late husband. Nonetheless, her story has almost completely disappeared; the notepads, receipts, and the calendars that contained her words--her life--were long ago consigned to the dumpster. Rare is the time when anyone speaks her name, much less recalls any fond (or perhaps not so fond) memories of her. In many ways, she is as anonymous as the men and women who grace family portraits hanging up in Cracker Barrells or who appear in old newspaper photos. Of them, nothing much remains except perhaps for a picture and a gravestone. Even their relatives have forgotten them.

Perhaps my great aunt is/was content with this situation. For her, the next life was the more important one. Nonetheless, I can't help but wonder what she would think about the Internet and more importantly about social media. With these tools, she could have left her story behind on a blog, on Facebook, or on some other, on-line site--for a future generation of curious relatives or for anyone at all. As importantly, while living, she could have used social media to keep in constant contact with friends, family, and acquaintances. When she logged into her Google + account for instance, she might have been cheered to see a post she'd written had garnered 15 responses. 

I will never know what my aunt would have done if she had spent the majority of her life in the new, social media driven world. However, I am thankful that I might have the chance to leave behind some aspect of myself--some part of me that a future relative (say in a couple hundred years) can access.

First photo courtesy of Microsoft Office via iStockphoto.  Neither site indicates provides any other information on this photo (ie. location), which is fitting.

  

The second photo courtesy of Microsoft Office via iStockphoto.  The tomb is in Salzburg; no other information provided.