#32: WHAT IS YOUR DIGITAL LEGACY?

Sooner or later, you will die.

I know that sounds awful, but it's something you get to hear every now and then. The undeniable truth? No one wants to die. But what can we do rather than prepare for it by living our lives to the fullest?

It is actually out of this process of running our lives that we all individually get to build a legacy.

One's legacy is actually a reflection of one's identity—of one's struggles—of one trials and tribulations over a given period of time. It's the kind of thing people get to remember you for, whether good or bad. 

They get to say, “Oh, Muhsin? That guy was a writer when he was alive. He did impart (or not) on many lives.”

Truth is, in a world in which social media is now an intrinsic part of who we are are, we need to realize that our legacy isn't only domiciled in our daily interactions with people on a face-to-face basis.

Just as we interact with people offline, we interact with people online. Just as we speak in public gatherings, we also speak to many via this means by making a post.

The only difference is that here online, we can't see ourselves physically. And that, my friend, is the reason we need to do the needful by not forgetting to build a good legacy online just as we strive to when we're offline.

By extension, our online self is a virtual outlook of our offline self. Just as we build a legacy via interacting with people in real life, so do we build a legacy via interactions in the virtual world. 

I can't recall the number of people I've become good friends with via social media. These are people I've never met in real life. I only met them as a result of what I do—writing. 

So far we've been good friends and we've been conversing and sharing lots of interesting ideas. Thus, they can say a thing or two about me and I also can say something about them.

The underlying question is that when people think of you, what will you be remembered for? What...? Would you be remembered as a kind, honest or truthful person? Or as a liar, a cheat or whatnot?

As I said earlier, it's not just a matter of your daily interactions with the people you meet face-to-face, there's a lot happening in the digital realm.

Start thinking about your digital legacy. There's more to life than behaving stupidly and sharing meaningless posts online. Don't forget, your online self is a virtual extension of who you're in real life.