Twitter and Facebook after death are, for now, largely digital versions of funeral home sign-in books, a place for the deceased to be remembered and for friends and family to leave messages in the wake of a passing.
But now Twitter and Facebook after death may be changing along with the broadening scope of social media — and companies like DeadSoci.al aim to provide you a social media life after death.
NPR recently profiled DeadSoci.al along with some other sites that facilitate Facebook after death and Twitter from the great beyond — and whether or not your soul goes on to an eternal paradise filled with puppies and ice cream, your social media accounts may indeed live on.
The site explains:
One [DeadSoci.al’s] founders, James Norris, got the idea for DeadSoci.al while watching a television ad: It features the late comedian Bob Monkhouse looking over his grave and talking about what a pity it is that he’s now gone because of prostate cancer … That got Norris thinking. Monkhouse is immortal through his fame and now through an ad that was released after he died. Norris felt that there should be such a service for people who have unfinished business when they die.
Norris said that with DeadSoci.al, deceased “people can extend their social legacy,” which “shouldn’t be exclusive to celebrities that are of value.”
One of the more interesting things about DeadSoci.al and the general idea of social network presence after death is that like much of social media, it repackages an old bit of humanity for a digital age.
Who among us hasn’t morbidly considered the potential reaction to our deaths — in the past, perhaps at a vividly emotional and packed memorial service or sea burial, and now, in a series of grief-stricken Facebook laments? And it’s here Facebook after death and #theafterlife on Twitter seem to speak to a basic, eternal human desire — to be remembered and heard and not forgotten. And the social media redux of the last great adventure also turns out to be another classic memento mori.
Users of DeadSoci.al (or more aptly, actually, the first registered user to die) will receive a feature on Mashable “as well as on various international TV networks and websites ensuring you extensive, international exposure.” But as with everything attained by dying, for Facebook after death, you can’t take it with you — for all the post-mortem glory you might receive, you wont even get to read the comments.
Do you have any desire to Facebook after death or tweet from beyond the grave?
This is a great idea. I've wondered what is a good way to deal with a person's digital social information after they pass away.