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If you actively use the Internet to socialize on social networking sites, participate in forums, blog, or play games, then you know that communication is key.  In any sort of online game, death is the worst possible outcome.  It could meaning losing all of your valuable items, starting over, and humiliation.  The focus of this article isn’t dying in a game, but dying in real life and what it means to your life on the Internet. 

Dying is always hard for your close friends and family, but what if you actively play in online games and all of a sudden you pass away?  Even if you write on your own blog, and something were to happen to you, all of your readers would have no way of knowing what happened.  If you have an account for a social networking site, such as Facebook or MySpace, your account could always remain active unless someone closes it for you.  Many of your online acquaintances have no way of knowing what happened to you, and such a problem prompted a few Internet websites to pop-up and try to profit in this industry.

Solutions for notifying friends after death

Only in the 21st century has death become more of a problem in terms of letting people know.  Before the 2000s, there were no such things as social networking sites, online games, email accounts, or blogs.  So many people did not have to worry about their accounts if something unfortunate happened.  A person named Robert Bryant and his father had a unique solution in case something would happen.  His father told Bryant about a location of a small USB drive which contained important contacts to notify as well as the administrator to an online group. 

Deathswitch

Neuroscientist, David Eagleman, sees many people in critical condition with no way of letting people know what has happened to them.  He decided to start a website called Deathswitch, which let people know that they died by emailing a pre-written email.  Basically, after you sign up, the system periodically asks for a password to make sure you are alive and functioning.  If you fail to enter your password, the system will keep prompting you and after multiple failures, it will conclude you are dead or in critical condition.  Based on whether you opted for the free service or paid service, one of two things will occur.  It will either send out one pre-written message to a person of your choosing - no attachments.  Or, for $20 per year, users have 30 messages that can be sent to 10 recipients each, and these types of emails allow for attachments of pictures, documents, or even videos.

SlightlyMorbid

In case you don’t want to go with that service, there is a different service called SlightlyMorbid.  Basically, this service gives you a certificate of information that should be passed on to a trusted person in case something happens to you.  That trusted person has the ability to log into your account and then send out your pre-written emails to people of your choosing.  This service is not free either, but varies from $10 - $50.  You can check out a comparison chart here. 

Why should I even consider one of these services?

Think about all the accounts to websites you have.  Think about all the passwords only you know to things such as your email, social networking sites, forums, and blogs.  Even if you don’t want your friends to be notified, you may want each and every of your accounts to be closed.  While death may be an uneasy topic to ponder about, always remember - it can happen at any time, and it’s best to be prepared for the worst. 

Read: [Associated Press]
Learn more: [Deathswitch]
Learn more: [SlightlyMorbid]