According to the latest Nielsen and NM Incite’s Social Media Report, people linger more time in social networks rather than in any other site, that is 20% of their total time online in a PC and 30% online via mobile.
The magnificent world that opens up to us in social networks through the World Wide Web is huge! There are so many things to see, that we don’t even realize exactly how much time of our lives we spend wandering around the endless clicking, posting, liking, sharing things in our profiles. So let’s make the calculation:
2012 Nielsen report bestows that in the U.S. a person can spend in average, only on Facebook, 6 hours and 53 minutes per month, let’s round it up to 7 hours. Now, pretend that you opened up your Facebook profile at age 15 and taking into consideration that a person lives an average of 78 years, which will make 5,166 hours of your life spent – only – on Facebook.
So what happens with all that information you shared over time when you are gone?
With your Twitter account:
After tweeting your last tweet, your family or loved ones have to get in touch with Twitter and choose to either make an archive of your public tweets or totally deactivate your account. A trustworthy person has to contact Twitter with your contact information, a copy of your death certificate, a copy of your government-issued ID and a signed, notarized statement.
You can find out how to contact Twitter about a deceased user here.
With your Facebook account:
As with Twitter, your account can be totally deleted or it can be memorialized. When memorializing an account, Facebook keeps the timeline on your profile, but limits the access and some features. Your Facebook friends will be able to leave comments on your wall or post pictures after your pass away, it will be like leaving you flowers, but no one will be able to log into your account again.
If you, or in any case your family or a close person have decided that is best to close your account, Facebook will need to be notified with a formal request that fulfills and justifies the demand.
To report a deceased person Facebook timeline you can go here.
With your Pinterest account:
According to their Privacy Policy you can close your account whenever requested but it does not state a specific procedure on the steps to follow to deactivate a deceased person’s account. In any case, you can read Pinterest Privacy Policy here.
If you had never given it a thought and have not decided yet what you would like to happen with your social media profiles after leaving earth and flying to the higher networks, now you have some idea of what the steps to delete or preserve your information in the endless-living Internet are.
For more information about social media visit our Social Media category.