Death and the internet

[x65943]

Internet friends come and go, but you always wonder what happened to them.

I'm sure most of you here have lost contact with people online, and that the thought has crossed your mind "Did they die?"

Now think about yourself. If you died, would anyone online know about it?

Have you ever thought about setting up a kill switch like Snowden or Assange? (a kill switch being an automated message that is released if you do not log into a website/account once per week)

What are your experiences with losing online friends? For me what hurts the most is a lack of closure. You are never quite at peace because you're not sure what happened.

(This is on my mind because I'm doing some water heater repair, and I'm scared I'm going to die from a gas leak or something).

 

[sarkwalvein]

Don't die! Call a trained repair man!

 

[DarthDub]

Stay safe.

 

[x65943]

Thanks for your concern. I already repaired it, and things seem to be working at the moment. I replaced the thermocouple. I was just kind of scared because I smelled natural gas at first. I tightened the gas pipe that connects to the water heater and I don't smell it anymore.

The pilot light wasn't staying lit before the repair, and now it seems to be on.

I moved into a new house, and I've been doing all sorts of repairs that I don't know anything about - but hey, you've got to learn somehow. That being said, natural gas lines are very dangerous.

 

[Deleted member 377734]

...actually I've pondered this myself. hell, @BlueFox gui could be killed by gang shootings in his neighborhood (which are common ) and i'd never know what happened.

 

[Deleted User]

I suppose I'd set up a kill switch, however, it'd be activated if my real name appears dead in the papers or something (I could probably set it up with a webscraper, idk) so I'm not forced to log in every week.

And I'll be honest, the thought has crossed my mind in the past. What perhaps scares me the most is the fact that everyone else would just move on, unaware of what happened to me, while I'm doomed to die by myself. The feeling that everyone else has the right to live while you have to die... is kinda scary, I guess.

 

[Deleted User]

I've actually considered setting up some sort of kill switch, but I feel like it might get activated on accident if I get really into playing a game or something and totally forget to log into any social media.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Many many years ago (8 perhaps?) I remember there was this funny guy from Rio (I think) that went under the nickname of Zombiepuppy on ds-scene.net
I remember he was kind of a big fan of the SMT/DS series, and I remember one day he was quite scared and posted some pictures of the military raiding the city with tanks fighting some favela durglords.
That was really kind of scary, and after some time I didn't hear of him anymore, perhaps he just stopped frequenting the forums and moved along, I don't know, but some times I wonder if he is doing fine.

 

[Deleted User]

Man, I was thinking about this not too long ago. I can't imagine just not knowing what happened to somebody I hold as a dear friend. I see it better having the information what happened to them, then just in thin air. I've had 2 people I know through the internet die, and one of these people I didn't know for 2 years. You never really think they died, you always want to think they are accomplishing something great. Doing something greater then staying in a skype/discord server. This is when it hits the most they died.

On another note, it would be neat to have a death switch

 

[VinsCool]

This is a thing that worries me almost everyday. Oh man...

 

[bennyman123abc]

Maybe GBATemp should give members the option of a kill switch. They'd have to set it up on their own however. I think it's a good idea however.

 

[Deleted User]

Maybe GBATemp should give members the option of a kill switch. They'd have to set it up on their own however. I think it's a good idea however.

It wouldn't be that hard to set up the option on your own, maybe a bit of experience in a scripting language like Perl or Python.

 

[bennyman123abc]

It wouldn't be that hard to set up the option on your own, maybe a bit of experience in a scripting language like Perl or Python.

I don't have a computer that I can run 24/7 however

 

[TotalInsanity4]

I've been considering writing something like that into my will

 

[Quantumcat]

There was a website I was a part of when I was aged 15-17 or so. Had lots of great friends there, we used to have the most hilarious group Yahoo messenger chats. I recently got curious about it and had a look and it had since shut down. I wonder what happened to all the people there. Some of them had terrible personal problems and I'd love to know what happened to them, if their situations got better or not. I wish there was some way of finding out.

 

[DinohScene]

I've had friends die on the web yeh.
Usually found out via via.

I don't have anyone really who could tell temp that I passed away.
It's kinda the only website I visit ;/

 

[Bimmel]

Internet friends come and go, but you always wonder what happened to them.

I'm sure most of you here have lost contact with people online, and that the thought has crossed your mind "Did they die?"/QUOTE]

Hey, that's some negative thinking there. Of course they didn't die! They just moved on with their life, that's all there is to it in 99% of all these cases. Cheer up. :-)

And for the kill switch part: The people who need to know will know, because they are always close. I wouldn't want to say everyone that I'm dead - I'm too shy for that. :-P
But the serious answer would be, that I could never allow myself to set up something like this. Why? Because it's that thinking that really kills you. You are all so young, there should be no reason to think about something so horrible. There mustn't be

 

[FAST6191]

I have had a few people want their significant other's facebook and such deleted (while I did it because why not such a thing could pose an ethical problem or three), and dealt with things locked behind accounts we do not have passwords to. Related discussion from last year http://gbatemp.net/threads/have-you-sorted-a-will.435383/
As for me. No killswitch, nobody knows to say "FAST6191 finally lost a game of beat the bus" and even were I not dead and thus out of existence I would not care. That said I have never really done the online friends bit -- friendly but never friends works very well for online. In fact before January and the Switch event in London I had never really anybody online first and then in real life, give or take the modern equivalent of "I know a guy that can sort that, here is his number", though in this case it was an email address.

But the serious answer would be, that I could never allow myself to set up something like this. Why? Because it's that thinking that really kills you. You are all so young, there should be no reason to think about something so horrible. There mustn't be

Looking back through my life there have been quite a few car crashes and motorbike crashes that have deprived me of friends and associates long before they had a chance to die of heart disease, dementia or cancer, enough to actually note as more than the 1 in 100000 medical issues. That said I have never met the "it is thinking that kills you" thing outside of military combat units, firefighters, police and similar "high risk" trades where it can get very odd (even to the point of having life insurance more than your mortgage being somewhat taboo).

 

[The Catboy]

I've actually had a few online friends of mine die and it honestly hurts just as bad the deaths I've experienced in real life. Actually it kind of hurts more because I never truly got to say goodbye to them.
If something were to happen to me, I do have several people who are tasked with informing every site I am active on what happened. Since I am only active on like 3 sites, it's not a very hard task for them. I just never want sites like the Temp to be out of the loop if something were to happen.

 

[Youkai]

Hmm I guess it would at least be a good idea to have a keepass container with all important accounts saved on one or more usb sticks or wherever and give family members the master key so that if something happen they could search for the stick in my flat and can "use" my accounts :/
Maybe I should do this some time, but I am to lazy.

As some others mentoned before, I doubt that all the people who stopped talking with you online are actually dead ... I had LOTS of people in ICQ when I was younger, and lots of them were strangers I got to know trough some online forums or games or whatever. Even did the first (very bad) german RPG Maker XP translation (before an english one was available) with some guy whos nick was coolacid but I havent ever heard anything from him after that even though we did this "big" project together.

Plus even with real Friends its the same very often.
When you change school or finish you will usually loose the view of each other as you have separete lives.
I had a very good friend who I knew since I was 3 years old and we even went to the same school and all ... think the last time I saw him I was like 23? which is 6 years ago.
Still got him on Facebook but don't really write with him or anything as we do not have much in common anymore.