An exploratory study of digital legacy among death aware people

Kirjoittajat

• Astrid Waagstein IT University of Copenhagen

Abstrakti

This article explores the awareness of and sentiments toward digital legacy through eleven semistructured interviews carried out in Copenhagen in January 2013. It focuses primarily on the methodical aspects and considerations of the conducted study. In short, digital legacy in this review refers to the digital artefacts people consider worthy of preserving either for practical, historical, sentimental or even economical reasons, and which are most often inaccessible due to password protection (Waagstein 2013). The study is based upon the premise that very few people presumably give thought to their digital legacy1 due to the subject matter’s novelty. Death aware2 respondents were chosen to increase the probability of getting valid data, since a large degree of death awareness is expected to correlate with the possibility that one also considers one’s (digital) legacy. In this study, the death aware sample consisted primarily of hospice employees, who were implicitly asked whether they can relate to their digital legacy. They were also asked to what degree they felt that their digital legacy was important to them and what artefacts they regarded as valuable and potential heirlooms.

The study showed that the respondents were not aware of their digital legacy at all. Despite their death awareness and having experienced similar problems with inaccessible digital assets regarding family or friends, they had not considered the problems regarding their own digital legacy. However, following the interviews many of the respondents changed practice both professionally and personally, ensuring their digital access, should their spouse die unexpectedly, as well as addressing the topic with patients and relatives. The study also identified the types of artefacts respondents considered as either practically or emotionally important, and worthy of preserving.