What happens to social profiles after you die?

For a while, the topic of what happens to your social media presence after you die has been something of a quandary, with graveyards of Facebook profiles and ceased Twitter accounts littering the web.

But in a particularly poignant recent example, one blogger prepared a short piece to be published posthumously, an extract of which follows below:

Here it is. I’m dead, and this is my last post to my blog. In advance, I asked that once my body finally shut down from the punishments of my cancer, then my family and friends publish this prepared message I wrote—the first part of the process of turning this from an active website to an archive.

If you’re represented day-to-day by regular incremental statuses, it seems appropriate to end on something absolute, almost like a conclusive and cumulative result of those preceding experiences.

Will we see more people leaving behind a final message, like their own obituary in their wake? Is this last show of will the ultimate testament to the short time we spend wandering our little blue globe?

I kind of hope it could be. Although it’s a little depressing to think Google might continue to advertise over your grave!