Why do you use social media like facebook, twitter, and instagram? Have you ever considered one reason may be because of this feeling of fulfilling some transcendent purpose?

I’m willing to bet you have (even subconsiously) felt this at times, but how? Let me share.

So, I was thinking about the end of my life—which is a good practice—and thought about what it would be like looking back at my life.

I realized, the fact is, that is one of the only things you really can do at that end of your life—looking back and remembering as many experiences as you can.

So memories are very important if they’re one of the only things you’ll possess at the end of your life. How and you make sure you still have some at the end of your life? How do you make memories?

Cesar Kuriyama decided to make a video from one second of every day of his life. After watching his TED talk, he inspired me to try making a video of my newborn son for the first year of his life, like these people did.

We didn’t get very far, but I wish we had because these memories become so precious later in life. I always hear older fathers say things like, “Don’t work too much while you have a family. They grow up so fast. You don’t want to miss it like I did.”

And then you have a stories like this: a widower submits a song about his wife of 73 years to a songwriting contest.

I realized, this is why I love facebook and instagram so much and likely why they’re so successful—it’s a bank full of your memories. You forget so much so quickly, but these sites and apps give you the ability to bring back so many things—and that feeling is so good. You’re doing something that will go beyond your life—preserving your memories.

But will facebook (let alone the internet or the jpeg file) still be around in 50 years? Think about how far technology has progress since Martin Luther King’s time, 50 years ago.

How will you keep those memories with you? Find the answer to that, and you’re on the road to a profitable idea, I’d guess. Because you’re tapping into the power of transcendent things.