Politics of Deletion

1. Non-Death

Recently, I received a social media notification reminding me of my uncle’s 75th birthday, and for a second, it seemed like he was still alive. I clicked on his profile, where nothing had changed since last March. I was unable to attend his wake, and there is no grave to visit: he didn’t wish to be buried. Instead, his ashes were spread in the air on top of Radhošť mountain in Moravia. I admired the lightness of it, the loss of weight, eradicating references to the materiality of the body, an attempt at non-presence. To truly disappear, he instructed to do away with his body as some people do away with all their physical possessions. To leave nothing behind requires no traces at all, and perhaps ashes spread by the wind were a way to ensure that the body would not come back in an unexpected way. What does dying and death mean, though, when algorithms of social media bring people back so easily? While bodies are scattered, our data does so only as terms and conditions allow.¹ In this “non-death”, as determined by technology, data coagulates as image clusters in social media notifications to capture attention. Bodily arousals caused by attention capture are perhaps a mirror reflection of the body’s inescapability. Guilt, recognition, the burden of life, suddenly all too real...Read the full article in the printed issue. Get OVER Journal 5

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