Saving Your Life

Ever since my parents gifted me the internet in high school — any Gen Z’ers reading this just became very confused — I’ve been leaving breadcrumbs of my life all about the interwebs. It wasn’t until I listened in on this conversation with Emil Wilbekin, Kimberly Drew and Steven G. Fullwood that I realized that what I’m doing and have been doing, especially with Instagram, is archiving my life; my existence. But also, that I don’t think I’m doing a very good job of it.

The panelists spoke about the importance of archiving and curating the things in your life that tell your story, whether it’s digital or analog, which is something I've, admittedly, never given any serious thought to until now. The questions were asked: If you were to die today, who gets to tell your story? Who has access to your belongings: Computer, phone, cloud drives, etc. How would your story be told? Would all of the key details of your life be included based on what you’ve capsuled about your time here? While my digital footprint has spanned everywhere from BlackPlanet to MySpace; Facebook to Tumblr and Twitter; Instagram and podcasts, and now this blog, could I confidently say that the breadth of my being will be preserved upon my exit? The answer is: I don’t think so. While I’ve shared much of my life and my story online, there’s also much that I haven’t shared and certainly haven’t saved for personal consumption. In fact, being somewhat of a minimalist, I tend to discard things that I no longer need or that no longer serve me. What I can say is that, thanks to this conversation, I’ll give more thought before throwing out or deleting what could be totems of my existence…as my phone reminds me that my iCloud storage is full…