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Facebook is Great for Dead People
- zethraeus 15y ago>In a world that hardly prays anymore, Facebook may be the next best thing. That's a scary thought.
- cormiston 15y agoI agree, a very scary thought indeed. I'm sure there's website out there where you can write prayers out and publish them into the abyss. But when it comes to speaking to ancestors or the deceased, why not?
- zhoutong 15y agoThe tone of this article is pretty strange. Is Facebook really a great thing for dead people? Or is it simply ironic to have dead people's profiles being more active than living people's? Anyway, I agree that Facebook shouldn't suspended dead people's profiles (and they can't technically). Social networking account is a part of one's life, just like a diary, a photo, or anything memorial. It shouldn't be cleared away.
- michaelaiello 15y agoDon't want to be spammy here but we recently asked quite a few folks "what do you want to have happen to your on-line accounts when you pass away" and there was a split for many of them. Some people want their accounts suspended/deleted when they pass, some want them left alone, some want them passed on to their families. http://www.blog.lifeensured.com/account-handling-after-death-survey-results http://www.blog.lifeensured.com/account-handling-after-death...
- cormiston 15y agoMike - very transparent and noble of you to post this survey! Thanks.
- codeup 15y agoDid you notice the image of the gravestone? The inscription has a (not so) subliminal message.
- cormiston 15y agoClever observation, though I'm not sure I intended the subliminal message. I have mixed feelings about Facebook's longterm value and scope, but I cannot deny how powerful this network is. Read more of my thoughts on it here: http://www.craigormiston.com/post/4910698242/will-facebook-rule-the-future-of-social http://www.craigormiston.com/post/4910698242/will-facebook-r...
- codeup 15y agoThe "subliminal message" remark was somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Calling the inscription a Freudian slip might have been more accurate...
- paulnelligan 15y agoTrue, you can't care about privacy when you're dead!
- cormiston 15y agoBut you can certainly care about it BEFORE you are dead :)
- paulnelligan 15y agomy point exactly!
- ma2rten 15y agoI work for a Dutch social network. We introduced In Memoriam status for member who passed away. The family members can ask for it. We will then show their date of death on their profile and won't send out birthday notifications and things like that anymore. Here is an article about it: http://thenextweb.com/eu/2011/03/23/dutch-social-network-hyves-adds-in-memoriam-status-for-deceased-users/ http://thenextweb.com/eu/2011/03/23/dutch-social-network-hyv...
- cormiston 15y agoI think this is a great idea! Facebook could use this functionality. You can declare certain people on Facebook "family members." Perhaps you could assign those people certain permissions to control your profile in specific use cases, like death.
- meterplech 15y agoThis seems like it would be a bad thing for 1000memories. They need to show why they are a better platform for memories than Facebook. I can definitely see advantages to them- seems a bit classier to me at least. But why they are better than Facebook for this purpose should probably be the focal point of their marketing.
- resdirector 15y agoAgreed. Having seen some of my friends successfully and easily set up memory pages on Facebook, makes me more inclined to choose Facebook (which I know and (somewhat) trust) over 1000memories. In other words, the exposure that Facebook has (or will have when memory pages become more widespread) is far greater than 1000memories due to their pre-existing social network.
- rglover 15y agoI had never heard of 1000memories until now, but I think you make a good point about their strategy. Their service requires you to physically create a memorial where as Facebook inadvertently just gives it to you. Not to mention it's already tied into your (seemingly) primary social network.
- cormiston 15y agoAutomation in a service like this is key because, well, you're dead and you can't do anything about it. Facebook should consider features the user can control that take effect upon death. A user would have to have a certain level of foresight about their mortality, but i think that could have a very positive effect.
- ultrasaurus 15y agoCould it be as simple as denoting a Facebook next-of-kin?
- cormiston 15y agoSounds like a plan to me!
- ignifero 15y agoI noticed that there isn't an app where you can make your "digital will" i.e. describe how you want your profile to look once you 've kicked the bucket. Isn't there a market for that? Also, dead people's profiles may be ok for the first months, but after a long time it becomes kind of creepy seeing people long dead. Do they keep the profiles forever?
- michaelaiello 15y agoHi, I'm the founder of LifeEnsured. We're that app. We let you do define what you would like to have happen to your on-line accounts after you pass. http://www.lifeensured.com http://www.lifeensured.com.
- cormiston 15y agoMike - great work! I looking forward to taking more time with your service and exploring it further.
- ignifero 15y agoLove your "social security death detection" feature. Hope it doesn't have any false positives
- michaelaiello 15y agoThanks. We hope so too. End of life validation is a tricky problem we think we've become good at solving by combining several validations. http://www.blog.lifeensured.com/end-of-life-validation-on-line-a-tricky-problem http://www.blog.lifeensured.com/end-of-life-validation-on-li...
- BasDirks 15y agoI find the whole affair disgusting. The internet is not the right medium for every aspect of your life.
- cormiston 15y agoI agree, the internet is not the right medium for every aspect. But I do think it has a certain level of accessibility and mobility real life cannot offer. My grandfather's gravestone is in Pueblo, Colorado a thousand miles away in a town I have few reasons to visit. If I had a digital library of memories, I could connect with him more regularly than every 15 years. But he was pre-internet and I have no access to these things. I am stuck with memories in my head, which fade in time (one of the tribulations of being human).
- ddkrone 15y agoI wonder when a pilgrimage to Mecca will just be a click away. There are some things that shouldn't be digital, death should be one of those things.
- lambada 15y agoInterestingly Facebook will let relatives 'memorialise' a persons profile after they are deceased. It's not well known, but I wonder if the features it removes undermine the point this article is making.
- cormiston 15y agoI am not aware of this feature. Do you have a link or any info to share on it?
- bumbledraven 15y agoHelp Center > Privacy > Privacy: Deactivating, Deleting, and Memorializing Accounts https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=842 https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=842
- tgrass 15y agoMy exgirlfriend passed away a year and half ago. My last words to her a year before she died were cruel and ugly and consequently I didn't hear from her family about her death, but learned of it from an online obituary of a small town paper. I was not friends with her on facebook (our relationship predated it), and so I cannot tease out our memories there. But the loss remains and I find myself returning to her obituary every few weeks.
- ddkrone 15y agoI don't really get this. Does facebook still run ads and on a dead person's page? If they do that seems a little creepy.