If I Die 1st, a just-launched campaign from Facebook app If I Die, is offering its users a chance at world fame. Here's the condition: You must be the app's first user to die.
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The app's first participant to die after a buffer period of a few months will have their message shared with the If I Die app community and media outlets.
Interestingly, the If I Die 1st campaign coincides with the launch of a new feature, which offers the opposite of a universally broadcast message.
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If I Die [app link] has just launched the ability to send your Facebook friends private messages or emails after you die. The new feature is ideal for users who like to keep things a bit more private. Previously, app users' deaths would instigate pre-written public statuses or wall posts on specific friends' profiles.
As part of the current campaign, users can send one private message for free. The broadcast of the "winner's" message is free of charge, as well.
Once a user dies, their death must be confirmed by three trustees they've selected through the Facebook app. If I Die says it has security measures in place, including time buffers and messages to the person reported dead, to prevent taking action on misreported deaths.
The If I Die app has more than 200,000 users, though not all users have left messages yet.
Death In the Social Networking Age
The ability to privately Facebook message your friends after death is a situation unique to this new era of social networking. No generation before us has been able to leave a digital time capsule to their loved ones, with tailored messages.
Eran Alfonta, CEO of the Israel-based startup behind If I Die, Willook, was aware of the sociological implications behind the app. Willook was founded a few days after a a close friend of Alfonta's and his wife returned from a vacation in Italy, during which they experienced a near-death accident with a truck. The couple are parents of three, and seriously contemplated the messages their young children would have from them if they died unexpectedly.
"I cannot imagine my only legacy to my kids will be the money from the insurance company. I have so much more to tell them" he told Alfonta upon the couples' return.
While If I Die may sound like a somewhat humorous concept, Willook invested into real word uses of the app, doing market research in old age homes and hospitals. The website and Facebook app first launched in 2010.
As If I Die continues to expand its features, Willook head of marketing Erez Rubenstien says their users are taking discussions of death seriously.
"It's real people using this app," Rubenstien told Mashable. "On the Facebook [brand] page people comment about leaving messages to their son or their husband. They're really taking it seriously."
Would you want to leave a message for the world to be broadcasted after your death? Let us know what you think of the campaign in the comments.
This story originally published on Mashable here.
