Cover -- Contents -- Foreword -- 1 Introducing the Digital Afterlife -- Why Is This Happening? -- Your Digital Life Death, and Beyond -- 2 The Shift to Digital -- News from the Front -- Physical to Digital -- The Benefits of Physical and Digital -- What Do We Lose? What Do We Gain? -- 3 A Well-Lived (Digital) Life -- Culture Shift -- Our Growing Dependence on Digital Institutions -- Each Individual Makes a Culture -- 4 The Artifacts of Your Life -- Digital Creations -- Digital Reflections -- Digital Collection -- How Much Do I Have? -- Where Is It? -- Who's Responsible for It? -- So What? -- 5 The Value of Digital Things -- Value -- New Forms of Expression -- Identity -- Shared Experiences -- So, Why Does This Matter? -- 6 What You Leave Behind -- Passing On Physical Objects -- Passing On Digital Objects -- Why We Pass Things On -- Value Changes from Person to Person -- 7 The Opportunity of Digital Legacy -- The Birth of the Digital Legacy -- Immortal Issues -- 8 Your Legacy at Risk -- Awareness -- Access -- Ownership -- Preservation -- But Wait, There's Hope -- 9 The Birth of an Industry -- Digital Estate Planning -- Posthumous Messaging -- Online Memorials -- Other Services -- What's Next? -- Securing Your Digital Legacy -- 10 Before You Begin -- Your Digital Executor and Heirs -- Your Digital Assets -- Access Equals Control -- Lack of Permanent Solutions -- The Process -- How Do I Get Started? -- 11 Computers and Devices -- Awareness -- Access -- Wishes -- 12 Email -- Awareness -- Access -- Wishes -- 13 Social Websites -- Awareness -- Access -- Wishes -- 14 Finance and Commerce -- Awareness -- Access -- Wishes -- 15 Create Your Plan -- Digital Estate Services -- Posthumous Email Services -- Do-It-Yourself Methods -- Issues -- How Do I Decide? -- Adding Legal Weight -- What's Next? -- Epilogue: The Future of Digital Death.

The Burden of the Past -- The Creation of Standards -- The Future of Cultural Research -- Connected Cemeteries -- Experiencing the Past -- Some Parting Thoughts -- Appendix -- A. Finding Forgotten Accounts -- B. Tools for Archiving Social Websites -- C. Index of Digital Afterlife Services -- D. Reading List -- Glossary -- C -- D -- F -- H -- I -- L -- M -- N -- P -- R -- S -- T -- U -- W -- From the Authors -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y.

Almost without realizing it, we have stopped saving our memories in photo albums, home movies, and letters, and have transitioned to almost total digital storage of such assets and information. Bank statements and credit card bills that we used to receive by mail and file away are now stored and accessed on the internet. If we don’t take steps to make all this information available to our heirs, our personal legacies could be lost forever. Written by the creators of thedigitalbeyond.com, this book explains the challenges, and offers solutions to make sure survivors can have access to this valuable material. It also explores different online memorial sites, which can do everything from notifying your email list when you die, to providing a place where survivors can post their memories.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2019. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.