Social Network Prepping

So I am all about prepping for food/water/shelter/energy and am a gung ho fan of people like Jack Spirko at The Survival Podcast. But prepping is typically described as what to do to continue on living, surviving. But we all recognize something is going to get us eventually. When it does, what about your Facebook page? In 2011 a high school classmate, Thomas Baggett, succumbed to a unexpected illness. Following his death, his Facebook page lit up with messages of rememberance from his old friends as well as his students in the St Louis area. However, the lack of a reply was palpable. I ran across an article today about a new Facebook app call If I Die that allows you to pre-record messages that can play once the 3 people you assign confirm your death. I am curious how things might have been different if Thomas had been using it.

I also wonder, though. Do you say the things now that you would say to your friends and family after you die if you could? Are you even capable of putting yourself in the right mental frame of reference to speak to them with not only the right perspective to understand how they will receive the message but also the words that you really want to say given that you would now be dead? I spent about 5 minutes thinking about what I would say and I'll tell you... it takes a lot more than that.

I think that you should get as much off your chest while you are alive. If nothing else, it removes the need to have to use this app. I recently reconnected with an old friend after about 3 years of radio silence - attributable to me, by the way. It was eating at me that I hadn't picked up the phone and finally just did it. We had a wonderful conversation, but it was weird that so much of it had to be spent on catching up.

If you read this far, here are a couple of action items for you to bring prepping into your Social Network:
1. Think of someone with whom you haven't spoken in a long time but should have or you are estranged.
2. Figure out how you played a part in it. Note: Even the most 1-sided arguments have 2 sides somewhere. Find it.
3. Reconnect. Use your face, a phone, or a handwritten letter. Save Facebook & email for those who you don't really care to talk to or who you already connect with enough that there's no need.