Your online life and your real life death — are you prepared?
Back in 1992 when I was interacting with people online, I was a strange geek and this phenomenon was virtually unheard of outside of the geek world. Today, in 2007, it’s hard to find people who haven’t made friends with at least someone through electronic means that isn’t near them geographically. We develop close friendships and involve ourselves in online communities sharing our lives with those around the world. But have you ever thought about how you’d let those friends know if something were to happen to you like death or serious illness?
WikiHow has an article, How to Share Your Obituary With Your Online Friends, that can be very useful to those who have established online ties but don’t necessarily share the nitty gritty details about who they connect with or where with spouses, significant others, friends or family. It covers instructions about how to let your designee know who to contact, where to go to announce the bad news and things like how to compile email and user account names and passwords.
I admit I’ve only given passing thought to this subject after similar things have happened to others online but like other things like this, I’ve neglected to actually sit down and put some thought to it. It might seem a bit hokey to some but there will always be someone out there who you’ve touched who would appreciate knowing. I know I would.
