I’ll never forget the look of shock and sadness on my Mother’s face when she found out a co-worker of hers had passed away suddenly, and at a young age. But I also noticed those weren’t the only emotions she was experiencing.
I could tell she was confused about if the Facebook post she had read announcing this person’s death was a hoax or if the person had been hacked.
It turns out it was unfortunately real, but it bears the question, in this day and age, what happens to our social media profiles after we’re gone?
Facebook has addressed this issue by letting you choose a Legacy Contact. This person can’t actually log into your account, edit your timeline, friends list or read past messages, but what they can do is change your profile picture and cover photo, respond to friend requests, and write a final pinned post.
The pinned post is helpful by letting your followers know one final message, where services will be held, or any other pertinent information regarding your passing.
Thankfully it’s easy to choose this person right from inside the Facebook app. Here’s how:
How to add a legacy contact to Facebook
- From within the official Facebook app, tap on the More tab
- Then, scroll down and press the Settings button
- After pressing Settings, tap the Account Settings button
- In the Account Settings screen, tap on Security
- Within the Security Settings screen, tap on Legacy Contact
- Once you’ve pressed Legacy Contact, Facebook will give you some information regarding what your Legacy Contact can do (note this is also where you can alternatively choose to delete your Facebook account after you pass away, rather than choose a Legacy Contact)
- Once you’ve chosen a Legacy Contact, you’re given the option to send a message to your Legacy Contact right away explaining what that means or wait until another time
- After choosing whether or not to send a message, you can see who your Legacy Contact is, message them, remove them or give them access to have Data Archive Permission (what this does is allow your Legacy Contact to download all the things you’ve shared on Facebook)
Are you concerned with what happens to your social profiles after you pass on?
Talking about death is always a touchy subject, but at least we have the option to make getting this information easier for our friends and family once we’ve passed on. Is choosing a Legacy Contact something you’ll do or are concerned with? Let me know in the comments section below.
