To my brother I leave my Facebook account ... and any chance of dignity in death | Stuart Heritage

Users of the social network can now nominate a 'legacy contact' to manage their digital presence after they die - but how on earth do you decide who to pick?

As a man in my mid-30s in the year 2015, I spend the bulk of my life diligently and repeatedly carrying out one simple task - ignoring the prospect of my inevitable death. It's quite easy, partly because I don't appear to be imminently approaching my demise, but mainly because I've successfully barricaded myself inside an impenetrable fort of shiny distractions.

If I notice a story about a freak accident that resulted in a tragic loss of life, I bury my head in Netflix for a bit. When I realise that I'm incrementally growing closer to the average age of people mentioned in obituaries, I stab a bunch of strangers on Assassin's Creed until the tightness in my chest goes away. And if I'm struck by a sudden awareness that the human body is a fragile, error-strewn thing, and that I could easily be taken out by a plane or a car or a virus or an exploding oven or the accidental consumption of raw camel's milk without so much as a second's notice? Well, I hammer out a load of unfunny fart jokes on Twitter. There, there. Everything's OK. Everything's OK.