Not many people my age agree with me, but there are times when I think social media has gone too far. Case in point: the Facebook app If I Die.
This app allows you to record a message to send to your family, loved ones, and most importantly, your Facebook friends. Once your death has been confirmed it sends out your prerecorded message to your Facebook friends or posts what you have written to be your last status.
In theory I think this isn’t a strange idea. For those with a terminal illness it might be a useful way of saying goodbye, and people have been writing their loved ones goodbye letters for years. In today’s world, wanting to spread your final words to your timeline seems like a natural progression.
What really gets to me is the app’s new campaign, If I Die 1st. Essentially, the company has teamed with various outlets and is offering to promote and share the parting words of the first person to die. Morbid, right?
Not only do I think it’s a bad idea to basically encourage people to be the first to die (imagine the problems that could arise with suicide attempts), but it’s the way in which the campaign’s video does it that really makes me uncomfortable. The video highlights the need for fame, and since most of us won’t be conventionally famous, what’s a better way to make it happen than by having your dying words spread all over the internet?
The video itself is especially creepy, practically glorifying death and positioning the first person to die as the “winner” (Fun Fact: their website has a running total of Facebook deaths since August 2012, along with the estimated time of death of the winner). When did our society decide that dying in order to broadcast your message to the world via social media was acceptable? I’m sorry, can’t we all just focus on living?