This is one of those weird little things that you never really think about. What happens to your online "life" after you die? I recently suffered a "loss of my family" as it were - the scrapbook company that I've worked for for the past four years went under, and our online message board was going dark hours after the announcement was made that they were shuttering the company. A plea went out to the higher ups, and fortunately they heard our call. They left the forums open for several more days (instead of five hours or so) and we were able to connect again elsewhere - where we could exchange offline contact info.
So what happens when you just up and disappear from your online life? Do your online friends hunt you up, or do they have a way of contacting you? For the most part mine don't. When I leave I left folks know, and when I return they welcome me back. But if I were to leave suddenly that would be it - I would just disappear into thin air. There would be no more online Suzie, and no way for folks to contact me. I would simply vanish. My husband doesn't know all of my passwords, but I'm sure he can figure a few out. But the bigger question is can he find out where I've been online - can he hunt up those sites that I regularly post at / participate in to let them know that I'm no longer going to? My mom had the benefit of knowing that she was going to pass away in advance of her actual death, so she let her online friends know and they all said their good-byes before she left. But aside from sharing your login info with a trusted friend, or registering for one of those sites that send out a message upon your death / when you haven't checked in / if you were to really disappear, how would your online world know that something happened to you?
1 comment:
I've thought that before. When my marriage was at its worst, and my husband was having a very STRANGE relationship with his sister, I blogged anonymously elsewhere. It got to the point, that I was scared to me in my house, and readers were worried for me. I was afraid that if something happened, a lot of people would be worried, but would have absolutely no clue what police precinct to call.
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