What happens to your social media when you die? Millennials face digital end-of-life planning
HUNTINGTON, N.Y. -- Millennials were the first digitally-native generation, and now they're some of the first planning for their digital end.
When you think about end-of-life planning, having a well thought out plan for how you want your social media accounts handled may not have been a popular topic in the past. But for millennials, it's a new thought process: Who controls your social media when you're gone?
"This stuff can out live you in ways that tangible stuff may not," said Mitch Mitchell, associate counsel of estate planning at Trust & Will. "Used to be family photo albums, or tax returns and things you would leave in boxes."
Facebook was created in 2004, Twitter in 2006, Instagram in 2010 and TikTok in 2016. Nearly 20 years of social media means two decades of information, pictures and videos uploaded for countless to see.
Millennials have been around for all of it. Which is why Mitchell says some are thinking about what will happen to their digital legacy upon death.
Many are now designating a particular person to control their social media, called a legacy contact or digital executor.
"Something like three quarters of millennials are naming a digital executor," said Mitchell. "The people you leave behind will have to decide, 'OK did they want these photos to be left or should they be deleted?'"
His company's new estate planning study, which surveyed roughly 20,000 millennials, discovered the generation is 29% more likely than the older generations to want their emails, direct messages and texts kept private from their family after death.
In total, almost 40% want their social media accounts deleted all together, nearly 20% want them memorialized or preserved, and the rest "don't care" what happens to their accounts.
"It might be something to consider," said 31-year-old Jackie McIntyre. "I would pass it along to my sister."
"I just want it locked and dead," said 33-year-old Jessica Galoff. "Whatever is in there, can stay in there. I don't need people going through my old messages."
"I think that can go really bad if someone gets a hold of your social media account," said 31-year-old Dominick Ferrante.
While Facebook allows you to choose a legacy contact, Instagram pages can be removed or memorialized by verified family members with proper proof upon death.
However, Mitchell warns if you don't change the setting or provide a password to your digital executor, depending on the platform, things could end differently than what you wanted.
"If you don't say what happens to it, then the default falls to the service," said Mitchell.
The survey also found millennials have some top requested memorial songs including music by Beyoncé, The Beatles, Bob Marley, My Chemical Romance and Wiz Khalifa.