Though no one wants to think of the day we will pass, it’s a real-life subject. One that might make you wonder, once I pass away, what will happen to my social media? More importantly, what do I want to happen to my social media? You can now decide by Facebook’s new feature of a legacy contact. With over 30 million Facebook users deceased, Facebook established a way for users to create a will for their profile, and whether they want it to live on.
Estimations show 8,000 Facebook users pass away each day but now that appointing a legacy contact is available each and every user can leave their legacy in the way that they choose.
What is a Legacy Contact?
Legacy contacts are people that are appointed by you to look after your Facebook page. Once you set a legacy contact, it can prevent your Facebook page from being hacked. This is because when an account isn’t in use, hackers are more likely to take over.
Things your Legacy Contact can do:
- Provide information for a memorial service, or share a last message on your timeline
- Accept or decline any friend requests
- Change your profile or cover photo
- Have your account deleted
Things your Legacy Contact can’t do:
- Log into your account
- Alter posts on your timeline
- Look through messages
- Delete friends or friend request others
- Add a different legacy contact for you
How to set a legacy contact
- Go to Settings > Security > Legacy Contact
- Type the name of who you want your legacy contact to be
- You can either send them a message to notify them or Facebook will tell them once they (Facebook) learns of your passing.
- Choose whether or not you would like your legacy contact to be able to download an archive of account information and photos (messages can’t be downloaded).
- Select if you would like your account deleted
Having your account memorialized
Once you pass away you can either have your account deleted, or you can have it become memorialized and choose someone as your legacy contact. If you don’t choose either of these options, your account will automatically memorialize. Though, if you don’t appoint a legacy contact to your Facebook account, it will remain unmanaged.
What happens to a memorialized account?
- Remembering will be next to the person’s name
- Loved ones can post to the person’s timeline depending on privacy settings
- Posts from the person can still be viewed
- Memorialized profiles aren’t broadcasted in suggested followers, ads, or birthday reminders
- Unable to be logged into
- Memorialized accounts won’t change if there is no legacy contact
Why have a legacy contact?
Though this topic is rather morbid, it’s something that we all must consider in our social media. Someday we won’t be able to manage it, but we can now have a say in who does, or what happens to our platform. Besides, setting a legacy contact and having your page memorialized isn’t just for the person who has passed. It’s also for all of the person’s loved ones. They can look at old photos of you, post memories and photos to your wall, all to celebrate and reminisce on your life.