Death and Social Media

By Adam  |  14 Dec 2015 10:00:00

When somebody dies, you can have their Facebook page turned into a special memorial page. This means that your Facebook page can remain relevant even after you have died. It may be a rather morbid subject, but actually, there are a lot of social media services available for the eventuality of your death. You can write lots of messages to be sent on certain dates or at certain occasions so that you can continue to interact with your family and friends (in a sense) even after you are dead. It's quite bittersweet, but in a way it's a kind of heartwarming thing which would be impossible without these modern services.

What makes this even more interesting is the fact that they can also set certain pieces of personal information to be released or shared with specific people at specific times... I wonder how long it will be before people are able to buy gifts in advance for their loved ones, if they know that they're going to die soon? It may seem weird now, but who knows? Perhaps in fifty years people will be giving Christmas and birthday presents to their friends and family even after they have died. Will eCommerce websites have some dead people amongst their customers?

It's very interesting to consider the ways that social media will change our perception of death and I'm sure many people think it's quite nice that these services will allow them to live on in some way. We never know just how social media (and, indeed, the internet as a whole) will next evolve, but it is very interesting to look at where it is now and to wonder about just how the current services will adapt and change as the years go by. It’s also important for anybody who runs a business over the internet to keep on top of these things, because keeping up with the latest trends means you can be ready to adapt when you need to.