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Title: Digital Legacy: A Systematic Literature Review
To more effectively support the dying and bereaved in end-of-life contexts, over the past two decades HCI and social computing scholars have sought to understand digital legacy. In this paper, we argue that it is time to take stock of digital legacy scholarship, examining what we know, what gaps remain, and what areas are imperative for future work. Through a Grounded Theory Literature Review, we identify four foci in digital legacy research to date: how identity is navigated in the passing of digital legacy, how digital legacies are engaged with, how digital legacies are put to rest, and how technology interfaces with offline legacy technologies. Based on our analysis, we present a model depicting how digital legacy research examines a lifecycle of data as it is passed down. This model identifies that digital legacy data moves through three stages: encoding, accessing, and dispossessing. The model illustrates gaps in current research and charts possible inflection points for future social computing research. Specifically, we highlight the importance of multi-user and multi-generational networks of people in end-of-life scenarios. Additionally, the model exhibits emerging theoretical findings and major concepts in the nascent field of digital legacy research.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2048244
PAR ID:
10528675
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Publisher / Repository:
ACM
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction
Volume:
7
Issue:
CSCW2
ISSN:
2573-0142
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1 to 26
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
digital legacy end of life inheritance stewardship memorial memory death identity legacy heirlooms literature review
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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