We never know what can happen to us today or tomorrow. Human life is finite and that’s what makes it precious. In today’s online world, there’s a need to take the appropriate measures if a person passes away and their social media profile stays live. What to do in such an event you may ask?
Advancements in medical science and technology have led to significantly lower deaths in recent years. Even so, about 150,000 people die every day around the world.
Facebook, the online social media network of choice for billions, offers you the chance to set up a Legacy Contact. This contact can help you manage your profile (with limited access), helping inform people on your friends list in the event of your demise.
There are two things that can happen to your account after your death. Your account can either be deleted or “memorialized”.
Essentially, your friends and family can share their memories of you with your memorialized account. This also keeps it secure by preventing anyone from logging in.
Anyone can report your death through a memorialization request to Facebook. You can fill out the form at the link to do so.
Only a legacy contact can manage your memorialized account. A Facebook legacy contact can:
They can’t login to your account, read your conversations on the Messenger, remove or edit your existing posts or delete friends from the account.
There are two ways to setup a legacy account for your Facebook profile:
Click on the drop down arrow in the top right corner of the Facebook website, then click on settings:
Next, click on General on the left pane, then click on “Manage Legacy Account” on the bottom.
Enter your friend or family’s Facebook account name, then click Add.
You can also send your friend or family member a message to inform them about this. This is purely optional and you can choose not to send them a message.
After your account gets memorialized they will automatically receive a message from Facebook.
The same method applies for the mobile app as well. Go to Settings > Account Settings > General > Manage Account. That can help you set up your legacy contact.
We never know when our time on Earth is up. And truth be told, with our increasingly digital identities over the internet, it becomes difficult (and even awkward) to decide what happens to them when we pass away. The least we could do is to ensure that our online accounts are passed under the care of a trusted person who can inform other people.
