Question

Can our online personas live on beyond our deaths? Why or why not?

Answer 1

Online personas can live beyond deaths. Online personas can live beyond deaths because before the person was deceased they could have prepared a bunch of posts previously before there death. Wether or not they have family, friends, coworkers, anyone to post these posts then theirs nothing else that can be done. Like what Derek Miller did with his final posts pre-preparing a message to post on his blog site that his family and friends posted for him to turn his active site into an archive.

Answer 2

No- an online persona isn't much of a persona to begin with.
Many people put a facade over their true identity when online (or on social media) for any number of reasons. They try to create a virtual life of upbeat social interactions, appearing happy and seeming to live a great life. A person's true personality needs to be revealed through real life experiences with others.
After someone dies, nobody thinks about their facebook followers, quirky posts/comments online, or how many blogs they wrote; their smile, unique personality, and what they accomplished will live on in people's minds.