12: The Permanence of the Internet

There is a TED Talk that focuses on the permanence of the Internet. It begins by connecting 4 words: Big Data, Tattoos, Immortality, and the Greeks. It was definitely an interesting way to begin the talk, but also a confusing one. I was curious from that point on.

The man speaking makes an analogy that calls your online presence an electronic tattoo. Tattoos tells a story and convey a message. They are part of our personality and communicate something about us. Our online presence does the same, but it makes the message even clearer and we do not know every single person that is seeing it.

The speaker continues on to say that these electronic tattoos that we all have are going to live much longer than we will. While we may not live forever, the online profile that we build is immortal. He draws on some stories from Greek mythology as well. He mentions Narcissus, which I think is the most relatable story for today's society. Everyone is always looking at their own image through all of their social media accounts. They may not exactly be in love with their own image, but they are constantly checking it and trying to improve the way they are portrayed through their online profile.

Narcissus looking at his reflection

Another good point he made is that immortality is not a good thing, but rather it is a threat. We may not care about the immortality of the internet when something good happens for us. However, an embarrassing video or post that we make can be devastating when thinking about how it will live forever online.

All in all, this video is a cautionary speech about how powerful the internet is and how we should think before putting so much of our lives on it. Our electronic tattoos will never disappear, whether we like it or not.