We are all living online – and it’s probably worth taking a few minutes to think about what happens when we are not living, online or in person. Just as you should have some basic end-of-life documents ready to go before you need them, it’s a good idea to think about what will happen to your online life.

We are giving you an excerpt of this article from the American Libraries journal, and you can read the whole thing right here!

“Librarians have an opportunity to help patrons understand their online behavior while also protecting the legacies they will leave behind. When discussing digital citizenship with library patrons or students, we typically talk about responsible behaviors in a technological society, focusing on topics such as cyberbullying, cyber safety, digital footprints, and sometimes cyber security. It is important for our students and library patrons to understand that the lives they build online will far outlast their physical lives.

While it may not sound like the most exciting lecture or professional development workshop topic, it is still incredibly important. We are digital citizens much longer than we are mortal ones. Facebook pages, Twitter and Instagram posts, Pinterest boards, and even Snapchat snaps—all this content has the potential to outlive the person who created it.

Think back—way back—on everything you have ever posted online. If your digital life were a closet, how packed would it be? How much purging would you need to do to empty it, as if you were making a big move?

Understanding what we digitally own versus what we can access online is important as well. For example, you can access music—but not own it—via services like Spotify, whereas files you store digitally in cloud servers like Dropbox or Google Docs belong to you.”

Check out the rest of these tips here!