The question I’m about to answer is one that has been on my mind for a while. It came up when I was thinking about the future of my own account and how it would be handled if anything happened to me.
Obviously, I don’t want to die anytime soon, but what happens to your social media accounts if you do pass away? If someone else takes over your account, will they have access to all your private information? What happens to your followers? Will they still follow you after you’re gone? And most importantly, who gets to decide which accounts are deleted or archived?
The first thing we need to talk about is why this even matters. Why should anyone care about their
Instagram account being taken down or archived? Well, there are several reasons:
It could happen to you.
I know that sounds a bit morbid, but it’s true. There are many people out there who have died unexpectedly, leaving behind an online presence that can now be seen by others. This includes celebrities like Prince, David Bowie, Whitney Houston, and Tupac Shakur. These individuals had millions of followers on various platforms, including Instagram.
You may not want your family to see certain posts.
If you’ve ever posted something embarrassing or sensitive, then you probably understand what I mean. Maybe you shared a picture of yourself in a bikini with a drink in hand at 4 am, or maybe you posted a picture of your child’s first day of school. Whatever the case may be, these things aren’t meant to be seen by everyone.
Your followers might miss you.
When you lose an online connection, it feels as though you’ve lost a friend. You feel sad because you wanted them to keep following you so that they wouldn’t forget about you. But if you’re no longer around, then they won’t get to hear from you anymore. They might wonder where you went and whether you were okay.
They might also worry that your absence means something bad has happened to you. After all, you haven’t posted anything in months. Is everything ok? Are you sick? Did your dog die?
This goes without saying, but if you post too much personal content, you run the risk of having your account shut down. So, if you have any concerns about your privacy, make sure you only share pictures of your kids, pets, friends, and other non-sensitive items.
You might want to leave some legacy.
There are plenty of famous people out there who left behind a lasting impression on the world through their work. Whether it was music, art, writing, acting, or business, they did something that made a difference to society. In order to ensure that they didn’t disappear completely, they left behind an online presence that allowed others to learn more about them.
In fact, according to Forbes, the top 10 highest-paid musicians of 2017 include Kanye West, Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Drake, Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Adele, and Bruno Mars. All of these artists have one common trait – they created something that affected people for years to come.
And while none of us would mind seeing our name up there in lights, it doesn’t hurt to think about how your life’s work will be remembered by future generations.
You might want your children to inherit your account.
Whether you’ve got kids or not, chances are you’ll want to give them something special when you go. One way to do this is to create a legacy account. A legacy account is essentially a second account that you set up specifically for them. It’s similar to creating a Facebook page for your child, except that it’s designed to last forever.
Legacy accounts
Legacy accounts allow you to upload photos, videos, and stories, and they’re automatically saved to the cloud. As long as your child stays connected to the internet, they’ll always have access to your account.
But just because you’ve passed away doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t be able to control your account. Many companies offer the ability to transfer ownership of social media accounts to someone else after you pass away. For example, Twitter allows users to designate a person to take over their account upon death. And Google offers a service called “Death Records” which lets you leave instructions for your account to be transferred to another user.
So, if you don’t want to see your account taken offline, you can choose to let someone else take over the reins. This could be a close family member, a friend, or even a professional social media manager.
It’s important to note that if you decide to transfer your account to someone else, you should still maintain a backup copy of your data. If you’re worried about losing your information, you can opt to back up your data using services like Dropbox, iCloud, or Google Drive.
Memorial account.
A memorial account is basically a tribute account that’s dedicated to remembering someone who’s passed away. It’s a great idea if you want to pay homage to someone who had a big impact on your life.
For instance, you could use a memorial account to remember your late grandmother. Or, if you knew someone who died tragically young, you could use a tribute account to celebrate their memory.
One thing to keep in mind with memorial accounts is that they tend to be much smaller than legacy accounts. That means that they won’t be saving all of your previous posts and comments. Instead, they’ll only contain images and videos that were uploaded by friends and family.