Digital Legacy Plan

One hundred years from now, there will be one billion dead people on Facebook. That’s a sobering thought for each of us as we consider our own mortality. It’s important that everyone with an online presence or electronic archive prepare the personal and practical elements of their digital life before death. From online banking to decades worth of digital family photos, copious creative or intellectual property, or personal history documented on social media, everyone has a widespread digital footprint that tells the story of our lives. Everyone has the opportunity to make choices about their digital legacy. If they don’t, they risk their legacy being misinterpreted, lost, or simply becoming digital litter.
When you die, what will your digital legacy be? What will be left about you online? How will your online accounts be accessed and handled and how will you be remembered for posterity (given that there’s no real erasing of the Internet)? Angela Crocker and Vicki Mcleod team up to give us ideas and tips on how to handle our digital legacies. Vicki focuses on the personal aspects of legacy, while Angela brings it down to earth with the practical, how-to aspects. One hundred years from now, there will be one billion dead people on Facebook. That’s a sobering thought for each of us as we consider our own mortality. And while it can be uncomfortable to talk about death, it’s important to prepare the personal and practical elements of your digital life before death. In this guide, co-authors Angela Crocker and Vicki McLeod offer solutions for the practical, social, emotional, and technical aspects of your digital legacy. They include best practices for online memorials, social media and mourning, and digital etiquette in death. Tools and resources are included throughout the book to help your digital estate planning and empower your estate’s executor. From online banking to decades worth of digital family photos, copious creative or intellectual property, or personal history documented on social media, everyone has a widespread digital footprint that tells the story of our lives. How much of that story remains online after we’re gone? Who has access to banking, passwords, and important digital records? What about painful or deeply personal elements of your personal or professional legacy? In life, you have the opportunity to make choices about your digital legacy. If you don’t, you risk your legacy being misinterpreted, lost, or simply becoming digital litter. It’s time for a digital legacy plan.
1. Introduction a. What is digital legacy? b. Who needs a digital legacy plan? c. Why digital legacy planning is important 2. Overcoming the taboo of death a. Accepting our mortality b. Seeking spiritual comfort online and offline c. Immortality promise of the Internet d. Why you can’t rely on bit rot 3. What is a legacy? a. Legacy by the generations b. Your personal legacy c. Legacy of your loved ones d. Professional legacies 4. Assets and access a. Digital assets inventory b. Who has control? Who has access? c. Revenue, assets, intellectual property, and cold hard cash d. Legal mechanisms 5. Legacy planning options a. Make your choice before death b. Bequeath your digital life c. You’re up for digital adoption d. Your legacy is lost e. Neglected or ignored: digital litter 6. Digital estate planning a. Beyond your last will & testament b. Empowering your executor c. Working with professionals d. Passing on social media, websites, and other tools 7. Online memorial planning a. Digital memorials b. Social media obituaries c. Legacy: museum of me 8. Dealing with death in the 21st century a. Social media and mourning i. Reliving sad memories ii. Reaching out for comfort online b. Digital etiquette in death c. Control: the algorithm of memory 9. The social shift: death at the intersection of digital and analog a. The public face of private death b. Celebrity and obscurity c. Everybody dies: what’s your plan? d. Social responsibility: We’re in it together