Well, it is finally done. I have presented my last seminar paper of my graduate program. And, I think it went pretty well!
As I previously wrote, I noticed a pattern of impersonation within the story of Yellowface, and I latched onto that for my seminar paper. Except, I focused on the social media impersonation that takes place and how it relates to specifically the impersonation of dead people on platforms like Twitter and Instagram.
There is some research out there on this, but one piece I found focused on the legality of these situations, or more accurately, how there is really nothing written into law in the United States to protect yourself from posthumous usage of your public digital data. Basically, if you post something online, audio, video, images, etc, you're leaving that data open to be used in nefarious ways by others who can get a hold of it.
This revelation opened up a whole conversation on protecting your online (artificial) persona and how the world has come to expect the continued commodification of a person's content after their death. One of my classmates brought up the state of Tennessee being one of the only ones to try and protect itself from A.I. use of the country music catalog because they are trying to preserve an era of history, culture, and art. Thankfully, I was glad to find out that Canada's copyright law protects you for 70 years post-death.
I personally am very against AI usage, and I think there is no better time than the present to start protecting ourselves from it. I may post on Facebook and Instagram, but never with my voice or my face anymore. And my generation (the millennials) are getting off social media in droves now. We see how it used to be at the dawn of the platforms and what it is becoming and we're just not having it anymore. My husband has not had a Facebook account for five years now and shutdown his Instagram two years ago. In truth, I have been contemplating my own Instagram shutdown at the end of 2026... All these social media apps are all now just about collecting data and feeding you a dopamine loop or a depression spiral. There is no such thing as cultivating your own content anymore; it is a constant broken algorithm meant to monetize views and AI is making things even worse.
I'm tired of the over commodification of hobbies and side projects - there is no just doing things because you love them and they relax you. Anything you are particularly good at now has to be a side hustle that makes you money. My Instagram is all about my cross stitching projects and the books I read. I have been cross stitching for 10 or more years and I have only ever made money off three projects. I do it for my friends and family as gifts and thank yous, not to turn a profit. But that is not what social media society wants anymore, they want you to build a brand off your hobbies.
The law note I used in my seminar advises that in the age of digital personas and social media we should be protecting ourselves by writing directives for the use of our digital data into our estate planning so that our descendants have control over what happens with it. Protecting ourselves posthumously from digital manipulation or impersonation was not what I ever thought I would have to think about in my lifetime - but here we are.
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