Seems like people are talking more and more about our carbon footprint and how we need to be more aware of our impact on the ecosystem of our planet. But what about the impact of our digital footprint, all that stuff we keep putting into cyberspace and on our computer hard drives that just keeps accumulating? The Internet is infinite, right? It will never be full, right?

I had a somewhat unsettling reminder of this a while ago. I was checking Facebook and was greeted with one of those ‘say hello to,’ ‘suggest friends to’ messages. The unsettling part was, the messages related to a friend who had passed away over a year ago. It started me thinking about what really happens to all of that stuff we post and save and forget about.

Then I noticed that I had the option to view the last 300+ posts from my ‘friends.’ Sorry, but if I read your post on the great chicken you had for dinner when you posted it three weeks ago, or didn’t want that ‘super coupon’ for dog food, not sure I really need to see that again, let alone save it. Wonder how many kb’s an ‘lol’ uses?

Another eye opener came from our IT folks. Seems that humongous multi-terabyte server we installed last year is almost full—how can that be? It was supposed to last at least 3–5 years. I guess when you have large graphics and heavy video presentations saved, that takes a lot of space. Multiple revisions of each, oops.

So who is in charge of cleaning up after us? Nobody at AOL; found some 2005 emails sitting there. Guess I need to check that site more often or just delete myself. Do Tweets have an expiration date? Already talked about those Facebook updates.

As marketers, we are in the business of creating and implementing great ideas using the latest and greatest technology. Let’s make sure we keep it up, but just maybe think about the implications and ramifications of our 1’s and 0’s. And let’s hope all the server manufacturers keep on building like Frito Lay so we can “post all you want, we’ll make more space.”