# What Happens to Your Online Self When You Die? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 2, 2004, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191 "2004-07-02T06:24:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/1 "2004-07-02T06:24:50Z")
Interesting article in the Baltimore City Paper [What Happens to Your Online Self When You Die](http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=8182) Over the past few years on the SDMB I’ve posted far, far more about what’s in my head than I would ever reveal to anybody IRL. If we shrug off this mortal coil, is all that’s left of our life and personality the muttered whispers of magnetic fields where our thoughts have been stored? > [@](#): > > Ghosts in the Machines > What Happens to Your Online Self When You Die? - By Ryan Boddy > > More than a year after his death, Aaron Huth continues to haunt those who knew him. His profile on the behemoth six-degrees-of-separation Web site [Friendster.com](http://Friendster.com) still lets people know that in May of 2003 he was listening to bands like the Birthday Party and the Postal Service and reading Nietzsche. His likes and interests were frozen for posterity on May 26, 2003, the last time he logged into the site. While Huth’s 12 listed Friendster friends haven’t heard from him since May 29, the day he passed away, each time they log on to the site they are simultaneously reminded of his life and his death. They are greeted by pictures of the Harford County native playing guitar and sporting the dark, wild, curly hair that accompanied his outgoing personality. > > Twenty years old at the time of his death, Huth had made no preparations and left no instructions with regards to how his worldly affairs should be dealt with, much less his online presence—how the people he knew only in the virtual sense should be notified. He is far from being alone in that regard. ---
**Author:** ![SanguineSpider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SanguineSpider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanguineSpider)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/2 "2004-07-02T06:40:25Z")
A tad disturbing… and food for thought. ---
**Author:** ![Thaumaturge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/858c86/32.png) [@Thaumaturge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thaumaturge)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/3 "2004-07-02T06:42:24Z")
Interesting. I have a dead ex-gf who made several websites, which are still around. It’s kinda creepy and sad to browse around them. I immagine eventually the data will be lost somehow. I have the password to erase them myself, but it seems to me that it would be wrong to do so. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/4 "2004-07-02T07:11:43Z")
It is interesting, and I don’t think it’s as creepy as the article makes it sound. People have been doing similar things for centuries; leaving behind graffiti on trees and on stone walls, or journals or paintings or photographs that are discovered long after a person’s died. The article suggests that a person’s influence is limited to his immediate circle of contacts, but it’s obvious that a person can have a profound effect on someone he’s never even met in real life. We’ve seen cases of that on this message board. All the internet brings to it is the anonymity that **astro** mentions, and volume. People can and do put a _ton_ of stuff online. I think it’s pretty cool to think of your circle of contacts and self-expression extending out far further than it’d be able to if you could only express yourself in person. Even before you’re dead – I still occasionally find stuff online that I wrote years ago, and not only can I not remember writing it, I can’t remember what it was like to be the person that wrote that. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/5 "2004-07-02T07:29:21Z")
It’s an awe inspiring thought that we may have reached the age where information may never be lost. Obviously most information will sink into obscurity but the cost of duplicating and storing information has become so cheap, and probably will continue to grow cheaper, that some things will never be completely erased. It’s possible that ten thousand years from now, some archive will still have a copy of this thread even if no human eye will have read it in centuries. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/6 "2004-07-02T07:44:16Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > It’s an awe inspiring thought that we may have reached the age where information may never be lost. Obviously most information will sink into obscurity but the cost of duplicating and storing information has become so cheap, and probably will continue to grow cheaper, that some things will never be completely erased. It’s possible that ten thousand years from now, some archive will still have a copy of this thread even if no human eye will have read it in centuries. Just imagine the mod smacking you’d get for re-opening a 2000 year old thread. ---
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/7 "2004-07-02T10:03:46Z")
So when AOL says “[n] people can’t be wrong! Download AOL Instant Messenger today!” there could come a time when n\>p, where p is the total population of the earth (or the known universe, if we ever get off this hunk of rock). And I bet they’d leave it there anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/8 "2004-07-02T10:22:35Z")
I was thinking more along the lines of when we die, our online selves go to online heaven, where there’s no lagtime, penis enlargers actually work and Charles Ngome Mutambo really does have $20 million to share with me. ---
**Author:** ![Fern\_Forest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/71c47a/32.png) [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/9 "2004-07-02T11:50:21Z")
A couple of weeks ago I was reading some extracts from an old newspaper, [The Galveston Semi-Weekly News](http://www.historictempletonmccanlessdistrict.com/newspapers.php?id=C0_19_15) from 1908. Pretty much the letter column turned into a message board as various Civil War vets started writing in talking about the war and trying to get in touch with other vets. It could have been a thread on this board. It is weird to read these letters where people are obviously still thinking about their future yet they’re all dead now. A little weird for us but our great grandchildren will love it for the insight it’ll give them into our lives. To think that there’s a possibility that in 100 years my great grandkids might stumble across this and be reading my words right now! (Hi guys. Be good!) I hope this lasts and for any embarassing things I’ve posted, oh well. I’ll be dead so I guess I wont really care. And even if I’m still lingering it’ll be a blast to read things I’ve written a century ago. BTW, if you read those Civil War letter S. J. Beauchamp was my 4th great uncle. It was funny to hear him talk about his new baby when he’s already 63. A bit sad to realize he died less then a year after he wrote that letter though. But it defiantely made him more of a real person to me then just a name. ---
**Author:** ![Exgineer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Exgineer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exgineer)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/10 "2004-07-02T12:03:16Z")
I’ve actually given this a bit of thought from time to time, and concluded that in my case it wouldn’t be such a big deal. Some people have a huge online presence, with several web sites of their own and varying levels of participation on others. I don’t. My only online presence is here, and I don’t believe that the vast majority of members would even recognize my username. I’ve had a really low impact here, I think. Some of the rest of you may want to give it some thought, though. ---
**Author:** ![Bruce\_Daddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Bruce\_Daddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bruce_Daddy)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/11 "2004-07-02T13:59:37Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > I was thinking more along the lines of when we die, our online selves go to online heaven, where there’s no lagtime, penis enlargers actually work and Charles Ngome Mutambo really does have $20 million to share with me. 😃 And that girl in that ad on the side of the page really is trying to chat with me: “Hi, I’m new here, wanna go on a date?!” ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/12 "2004-07-02T14:50:01Z")
I too have given this much thought and finding it very interesting. I have a fairly heavy online prescence, though its rather anonymous and not attributable to “physical me”. I in fact make it a point to archive my electronical existence. I have been using ICQ since its first released version, with continuous message archiving. That’s about **8 years** of **continuous** data logging\*. I love the fact that I can go back to this day, say, 5 years ago and see exactly what I was doing and thinking at the time. Sure, my ICQ database isn’t online, but in theory, I could export it and upload it - one enormous-ass blog. I also have quite literally thousands of newsgroup postings, documenting my various odd hobbies, interests and diversions of years past. And of course, I have a website (check my profile). (\*Unfortunately, with the slow and painful demise of ICQ and the resulting growth of MSN and AIM, the continuity of my database has sadly been quite inconsistent over the past year or so ☹ ) ---
**Author:** ![av8rmike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/edb3f5/32.png) [@av8rmike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/av8rmike)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/13 "2004-07-02T14:51:03Z")
I think there was a thread here a while back about if people had an “online buddy” who would take care of their online affairs should something unfortunate happen to them. **Scotticher** notified us when **poopah chalupa** died, and **Persephone** ’s husband registered here after she died. However, her LiveJournal remains, without any mention of her fate. Speaking of which, today would have been her birthday. But, I digress. There was also a thread about ways to notify people in case something did happen to you. Apparently there exists so-called “dead-man’s switch” software, which, if you don’t de-activate it within a certain time, can take measures to notify other people. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if someone posted here or in my journal that something had happened. Better that than disappearing without a trace. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/14 "2004-07-02T15:06:20Z")
_Online members here don’t die… they just slowly paid away._ ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/15 "2004-07-02T16:21:35Z")
I had a good friend that died last year. We’re both on Yahoo Messenger and did the chatting whenever we saw each other. A couple weeks after he passed away I was hanging out online and I saw him log-on. I absent-mindedly IMed “Hey, what’s up?”. A couple minutes later I got the reply “Who’s this?”. I replied “This is Josh, of course”. “Oh, hi, Josh. This is X’s Mom, I’m just cleaning up his place and turned the computer on.” For some reason, the synapses in my brain didn’t line up before that. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/16 "2004-07-02T16:32:46Z")
I keep a file on the desktop of my laptop - it’s not a formal will, but it’s my ‘just in case’ document. It has information about my life insurance, who to contact about specific bills - such as the owners of my student loans - and people who need to be contacted. As far as online places, these boards are the only ‘community’ listed - the other people include people I met back when I chatted a lot in chat rooms, and ‘real life’ friends who I mainly keep up with through e-mail. It also includes my funeral instructions - basically, cremate me, have a memorial service if they want, and do what they will with the ashes. And instructions to give any remaining life insurance money to my younger brother - he’s just moved out on his own, and it would help him out a lot, I think. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2004, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/17 "2004-07-02T19:13:19Z")
> [@Lsura](#): > > I keep a file on the desktop of my laptop - it’s not a formal will, but it’s my ‘just in case’ document. It has information about my life insurance, who to contact about specific bills - such as the owners of my student loans - and people who need to be contacted. As far as online places, these boards are the only ‘community’ listed - the other people include people I met back when I chatted a lot in chat rooms, and ‘real life’ friends who I mainly keep up with through e-mail. > It also includes my funeral instructions - basically, cremate me, have a memorial service if they want, and do what they will with the ashes. And instructions to give any remaining life insurance money to my younger brother - he’s just moved out on his own, and it would help him out a lot, I think. I have a disc like that, a copy of my will, funeral instructions, my whole family trust ‘plan’[i am the main trustee, and our lawyer knows who I have decided is my replacement if I croak] and copies of letters or emails to be printed and sent or emailed to my on and offline friends, and all my login/password info, and lists of what message boards I hang out upon, insurance policies, bank accounts and all, just in case=) It is sitting at the family trust’s lawyers office=) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/18 "2004-07-04T00:09:57Z")
I have a IRL will of course, a living will, and a medical power of attorney. As for online, about the only place I post with any regularity is here, and I have given my executrix a sealed envelope with my SDMB password.(I trust this person with my life, no worries) So if I die she will close out my presence here. ---
**Author:** ![interface2x](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c0e974/32.png) [@interface2x](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/interface2x)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/19 "2004-07-04T05:41:24Z")
> [@Sublight](#): > > I was thinking more along the lines of when we die, our online selves go to online heaven, where there’s no lagtime, penis enlargers actually work and Charles Ngome Mutambo really does have $20 million to share with me. Not to mention all of the great stuff you’ll get from forwarding those emails. ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2004, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191/20 "2004-07-04T06:18:06Z")
I was a member of an online community, long ago, in the DOS Ages. I also forty-megabytes of hard drive storage. At the time, that was huge. I had configured my copy of the board specific software to “Log all sessions” in a continuous appended TXT file. Three years later, my XXXLOG.TXT file was moved over to my new hard drive, as part of a sweep clean move. I only kept it out of nostalgia. I had nine megabytes of chat, and other board activities, all in date stamped chronological order. The entire King James Bible is only four megabytes, in the same format. Oddly enough, the same file was copied onto a save to CD move, from that computer, to my first Windows computer. Since the board had gone belly up, it was really of no interest to anyone, anymore. But, I still have the disks, and there are several copies of the file, right here in my room, twenty some years later. There is no listing of who was actually behind which screen name, aside from the obvious fact of my own screen name. Given the nature of things, that is probably a good thing. Also on my current hard drive, there is a file named “In the event of my death.” Among other things, it contains a post, for the SDMB to let you all know that I am gone, and a request that my heirs (heir, in all practical reality) post it here in MPSIMS. Tris [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-your-online-self-when-you-die/253191.md?page=2)