mikebutcher #svc2c #svuk Panel appears to have stumbled on fact that @ajkeen was right: if you're not on social networks you're dead
josiefraser: @ajkeen @mikebutcher Plenty of dead people on twitter, cf @Henry_Fuseli @Edgar_Allan_Poe @JDerridian & million Sigmund Freuds
My Uncle John died this month, so I had a few more conversations than usual about death, and particularly it's relationship to the social web. Social Networking Services are developing policies and processes relating to the archiving and accessing of people's accounts after they die, and people who have significant digital presence are stating to think about bequest issues - will the sorting out of our online information, artifacts, accounts become an additional job for our relatives or friends, to be approached in the same way as clearing the physical shelves and sorting through documents? And what can explain the rise in popularity of dead celebrity fakesters, some of whom have many more followers than average users?
digital identity after death
an email i received, about death and facebook Ze Frank, September 9 2009
Identity, Memory, Death & the Internet Dave Cormier, September 18th 2009
Grieving Goes Digital NewsOK, May 25 2009
thinking ahead
What happens to your social network accounts when you die? makeuseof.com, November 16 2009
Legacy Locker "The secure way to pass your online accounts to your loved ones"
dead celebrities on Twitter
25 Dead People of Twitter Soulellis Studio, March 1 2009
Dead People Twitter List, Boston.com News
Tweeji "Follow dead people on Twitter"
I must admit that getting a recent prod from Facebook suggesting that I should 'reconnect' with a 'friend' who has actually been dead for the last few months took me slightly by surprise :-) Of course, Facebook had no way of knowing this without some kind of outside intervention.
I agree that there are some interesting issues here, particularly about how we should plan for helping other people to deal with our digital identity after we die.
The converse question is about how we should respond when our friends die. For example, should you unfollow/unfriend people that you know who have died if their old social presence hasn't been dealt with in some way by their relatives?
The notion of 'friend' persists - the notion of 'follow' kinda doesn't. But that's probably reading too much into those two words!
Posted by: Andy Powell | 03 December 2009 at 12:14
Have you read Sum by David Eagleman? One of the stories is about a digital afterlife.
Also this story tugged my heartstrings earlier this week: http://www.unknownnews.org/DannellLites.html
Posted by: Martha | 03 December 2009 at 12:15