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Dead end: Social media for your afterlife

September 1, 2010 By 3 Comments

When you lead a digital life, it’s only a matter of time until death makes its way online.  

The Lien Foundation, an organization seeking to improve care for the dying, allows people to ’befriend’ Death on Facebook and ‘die-logue’ with him. The Foundation’s Life Before Death initiative also offers tools for the living that can improve their ‘quality of dealth.’

Last Playlist  - Create and share a song playlist to celebrate your life when you’re ready for the afterlife. Top Last Playlist songs include, “Bad Romance,” ”Call on Me,” “More than Words,” “Dancing Queen” and “Man in the Mirror.” How long before “Highway to Hell” climbs the chart?

 Bucket List – Create and share your bucket list (things you want to do before you die) on Facebook. Popular bucket list items include backpacking Europe, publishing a book, earning a million dollars and getting a tattoo.

Say It – Make and share public declarations before you die. Send a message of love, regret or confession. Unload that secret or long-overdue love note. Post it online before it’s too late – whether it’s a tribute, thank you or expression of regret – some things are better said now than gone six feet under.

In July, the Foundation released a Quality of Death (QOD) index, the first-ever global study on the quality of death.  The United States ranked ninth in the study for overall QOD behind leaders such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and five others.  The United States ranked 31st (among 40 countries) in the affordability of ‘end of life’ care.

Madisoan-based Entrustit offers Account Guardian — a more practical afterlife tool for the living.  This tool creates a secure list of your digital assets, nominate an executor and decide which assets should go to which heir and which should be destroyed. Your data can never be viewed by anyone until after we’ve double verified that you’ve passed away. All Entrustit data is encrypted using 256-bit SSL provided by Verisign.  In upcoming months, Entrustit hopes to offer a new tool called “account incinerator” that deletes accounts privately upon verification of death.

Tools offered by Entrustit and other companies like Legacy Locker, help protect and retain our online legacies (digital photos, journals, blogs, etc.) and ease the burden on our loved ones. 

Credits: Cartoon courtesy of Doug Savage, SavageChickens.com.

The Meaning of Life: Death

Try and be nice to people. Avoid eating fat. Read a good book every now and then. Get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations. (Monty Python, 1983)

Further Reading:

Filed Under: Cloud, Facebook, Misc T, Privacy Tagged With: , , , , ,
About Troy Janisch

Troy Janisch, Publisher of Social Meteor, is a digital marketing professional and social media beatnik. He is a contributor to SmartBrief on Social Media. Troy leads the marketing team at Sentry Insurance, but don’t let that scare you. He rarely talks about insurance in mixed company [grin]. Like a good social media program, SocialMeteor.com is all about content. It’s not a consulting company or marketing agency.

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  • http://wendysoucie.com Wendy Soucie

    Makes me want to signup for Entrustet. After taking a look at my social media accounts, the passwords, and all the content I have created and shared to date I am worried that no one will know what to do with me gone.

    At the recent BarCamp Maidson, @gregtracy of sharendipity said that he believes he is leaving a living legacy for his children to document their activities and his thoughts and views on business and living.

    My kids are older and don’t seem to view my activity the same way as Greg views it. LOL

    Wendy
    xeesm.com/wendysoucie

  • http://entrustet.com Jesse

    Great post, Troy. Hadn’t heard of some of those services…Last Playlist catches my attention in particular! And gotta love the Monty Python shout-out–”Do get Mr. Death a drink.”

    Digital death is certainly a real problem, but also a real opportunity at the same time. We have an opportunity to have future generations remember us in more interesting and detailed ways than ever. The only things I have to remember, say, my grandfather, are a few old letters, pictures, and stories. But I personally have the opportunity to make sure my great grandchildren have deep insight into my everyday thoughts and interests. Of course, it requires some effort on my part to make sure I craft my digital legacy carefully by having certain accounts passed on to certain people and other accounts deleted from the web, but the power is in my hands.

    Best,
    Jesse
    co-founder, Entrustet.com