So here’s a weird question for y’all: what happens when you die? More specifically, what happens to the “online version” of you? Will your World of Warcraft guild hold a funeral for you, one that’s promptly invaded by a bunch of rival faction jerks? Will there be a Facebook “We miss you, man” group? Does anyone in your life have the password to you Gmail account, should you need to contact your contacts? “Remember Bill? Yeah, he doesn’t live here anymore.”
It’s apparently a big problem in online worlds such as World of Warcraft. Blizzard doesn’t exactly release account information willy nilly, so getting into contact with your former guild members, people who depend[ed] on your heals and buffs and the like, can be a huge pain in the behind. (Pardon my French.) And because people tend to drop dead, for lack of a better term, they often don’t have a Plan B, let alone Plan A, vis-à-vis their online presence.
You can do like one Oklahoma man did last year. He had a USB flash drive filled with all sorts of important contact information. “Break glass in case of emergency” type of thing. So, upon his death, his son fired up the flash drive, and was able to contact all the important folks in his life, virtual or otherwise.
Then there’s those e-mail services that promise to send e-mails after your death—“hey, man, I did cheat in that foot race in high school.”
Just a little morbid thinking for your Sunday afternoon.
You knew somebody was going to post this didn’t you?
http://www.mydeathspace.com/
Actually, I have thought about it, but I’m not to worried. I don’t get online enough to warrant important (or non important) internet friendships. But if needed my best friend does know my password to everything, so he’ll do with that what he pleases.
It’s funny, as soon as I started reading this a really depressing Chopin song came on in shuffle, trust me, it’s not like i listen to classical all the time.
I’m not spelling or grammar checking that, to hung over.
Luckily my girlfriend knows how to log into all of my online accounts, that way if the unexpected does happen she will be able either close the accounts or change them accordingly.
There is also the virtual equivalent of death – when you stop visiting a site. Apparently, the politics social network site Republic of Titulia has a businessman who is trying to capitalize on this:
http://www.titulia.com/companies/home/4
I’m dead..can’t they just forward me the info.
A friend of mine died. I didn’t find out for 2 weeks. After the grief i also wondered what would happen. I checked out her facebook it was filled with messages from friends etc eacg kind of giving a eulogy of their own. It was quite nice.
At the same time to see her last updates before her death was quite eerie.
I had the same situation as phoreohphore. A friend of mine died, but her facebook and myspace were still up. Nobody knew her password though, and people are still leaving her RIP and “miss you” messages 3 years later. It’s really nice to see them still think of her. It’s also very sad to see that she’s still “in a relationship with [her boyfriend]” … I can’t imagine what that must be like for him =(