Home > NewsRelease > Festival Video: Meaningful Memorials and How to Create a Digital Legacy
Text
Festival Video: Meaningful Memorials and How to Create a Digital Legacy
From:
Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death, Funeral Expert Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death, Funeral Expert
For Immediate Release:
Dateline: Albuquerque, NM
Friday, December 24, 2021

 

Manage Your Digital Legacy

Digital Legacy and DeathA digital legacy consists of all of the photos, videos and posts on social media you’ve put out there. What happens to all that information about you after you die? Mandy Benoualid, Co-Founder and President of Keeper, presented “Meaningful Memorials: How to Create a Digital Legacy for a Loved One (or Yourself!)” as part of the 2021 Before I Die New Mexico Festival. She shares some great information about managing your online life after death.

Here’s a sobering statistic: there are an estimated 30 million deceased people on Facebook as of October 2021. About 20,000 people die on Facebook EVERY DAY – that’s about 7.3 million people dying on this one social media platform EVERY YEAR. Dead users on Facebook could outnumber the total number of living people on the planet in 50 years. And over on Twitter, 613,000 users die every year in the U.S. alone.

Mandy Benoualid commented, “This is a lot of information, this is a lot of people’s lives that are online. And this doesn’t include Google, iTunes, and YouTube. What really happens to everything that’s online after we’ve died?”

Watch the Video

How You Can Start Preparing for Your Digital Death

Most social media platforms have strict rules around shutting down social media accounts after the account holder dies. They can vary by company, with different options for the now-dead person’s account. Think of all the photos and memories that can be lost when the account is shut down.

  • Facebook: has a memorialized account option, and the ability to name a legacy contact.
  • Instagram: has a similar model, but much more limited.
  • Twitter: offers account removal, no memorialization.
  • TikTok: only offers account deletion.
  • Pinterest: only offers account deletion.

Create an Online Memorial

Mandy said, “I encourage you all to start thinking about and building your legacy today. Organize your digital assets, protect them and share them. You’re only going to be able to share them in the future for when you die, and if you don’t organize and start protecting them now, then it’s not going to be so great for those you leave behind.”

Mandy Benoualid founded Keeper in 2013. It’s a social online memorial platform that hundreds of thousands of families are using to share their stories. She is also the editor of the consumer-focused death positive media site, TalkDeath.com. She regularly speaks at funeral and cemetery conferences.

Watch more videos from the Before I Die NM Festival here.

Festival Sponsors

2021 Festival Sponsor Logos

Thank you to these companies and organizations that made the Before I Die NM Festival possible.

A portion of the sponsorship proceeds and ticket sales from the Before I Die NM Festival were donated to 501(c)(3) charitable partner, Historic Fairview Cemetery, established in Albuquerque in 1881. The cemetery is the final resting place of 12,000 individuals, with remarkable stories reflecting the history of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the United States of America. The website is www.HistoricFairviewCemeteryABQ.org.

Gail Rubin, CT, is author and host of the award-winning book and television series, A Good Goodbye: Funeral Planning for Those Who Don’t Plan to Die, Hail and Farewell: Cremation Ceremonies, Templates and Tips, and KICKING THE BUCKET LIST: 100 Downsizing and Organizing Things to Do Before You Die.

Rubin is a Certified Thanatologist (that's a death educator) and a popular speaker who uses humor and films to get the end-of-life and funeral planning conversation started. She "knocked 'em dead" with her TEDx talk, A Good Goodbye. She provides continuing education credit classes for attorneys, doctors, nurses, social workers, hospice workers, financial planners, funeral directors and other professionals. She's a Certified Funeral Celebrant and funeral planning consultant who has been interviewed in national and local print, broadcast and online media.

Known as The Doyenne of Death®, she is the event coordinator of the Before I Die NM Festival. She also hosts A Good Goodbye Internet radio show and produces Mortality Minute radio and online video spots. Her YouTube Channel features more than 450 videos!

Rubin is a member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association, Toastmasters International and the National Speakers Association New Mexico Chapter. Her speaking profile is available at eSpeakers.com.

Gail Rubin has been interviewed about funeral planning issues in national and local broadcast, print and online media. Outlets include The Huffington Post, Money Magazine, Kiplinger, CBS Radio News, WGN-TV,  and local affiliates for NPR, PBS, FOX, ABC-TV, CBS-TV and NBC-TV. Albuquerque Business First named her as one of their 2019 Women of Influence.

Sign up for a free planning form and occasional informative newsletter at her website, AGoodGoodbye.com.

News Media Interview Contact
Name: Gail Rubin
Group: A Good Goodbye
Dateline: Albuquerque, NM United States
Direct Phone: 505-265-7215
Cell Phone: 505-363-7514
Jump To Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death, Funeral Expert Jump To Gail Rubin, The Doyenne of Death, Funeral Expert
Contact Click to Contact