Life is full of long nights with friends, day trips to the beach and schlubby afternoons with a crew. And in today’s world, it might as well had never happened if anyone don’t post the evidence somewhere.
Facebook has replaced the photo albums in the basement (although nothing is greater than finding an old photo of a mom between a couple of male strippers...topped with 80’s hair and a smile it could argue is bigger than ones in baby photos). Blogs have replaced a childhood diary. Not only is a social life constantly uploaded onto the internet, but with online banking and apps, financial life is all stored in the great big World Wide Web. But what happens when someone kick the bucket?
"...a friend pass away a few years ago, and the other day I noticed someone posted a message to their wall. "
“Facebook just reminded me of a message you sent me on this day about us hanging out for a post birthday celebration. hope you had a great birthday.”
This is weird, right?...sure Facebook isn’t really viewed once crossed over to the other side. Yes, this could be a person’s way of staying connected, but is that really what it has come to? Staying in touch with dead friends through Facebook? Would someone want their friends to ‘stay in touch’ through social media once passed? Well, whatever they wish to do, there’s someone to help out.
Much like a will disperses assets amongst those close, they could assign someone to be a ‘Digital Executor’. This should be someone trustworthy with access to an online accounts once passed and, of course, someone who is tech savvy enough to do what needs to be done. This could include deleting all online social media accounts, deleting files from a computer or archiving anything that may be needed by family or a significant other at some point.
Personally, having a online life to be deleted. But for those who wish to keep social media active and open, they need someone to maintain these accounts. Both Facebook and Instagram will memorialize your account. Facebook will allow to choose a friend that will manage the account after passing away. They’ll have a limited list of things they are able to do, however, this can only begin once Facebook knows they are dead. So make sure to really trust this person before they just go in and start posting favourite after dark videos.
Twitter offers a more cut and dry process in which a family member or person in charge of an estate can only have the account deactivated rather than memorializing it. The same goes for LinkedIn after some verification is provided by a member of family.
For those wanting to send a message post-mortem, The Digital Beyond is a company that lists providers of after death online activity. This could include anything from allowing family members to share photos on a memorialized age or set up a message to all online connections.
Not to put a damper on the day, but keeping online presence monitored after death is something everyone should all be thinking about. This is an era where the internet holds a lot, from photos to conversations to personal documents. Imagine it being that box of stuff that is kept at the back of your closet. Want that lost in the online world forever?
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