A digital memorial is a website that is used to eulogize a deceased person, generally with the idea that the fact that it’s on the internet is enough to have it last forever.
These memorials can take many shapes as more people create them. They can be specialized sites made to collect individual eulogies, or they may take the form of a Facebook page taken over by friends, who turn their lost friends’ old page into a digital ghost, an opportunity to continue the relationship they once had, to keep their friend updated on their lives, and to imagine the responses they get. This particular iteration is how I came into direct contact with the subject, after witnessing a recently-passed friend from High School’s Facebook undergo a similar transformation.
This topic opens new avenues of the discussion of grief: in a world where we don’t need to let go of the ones for which we grieve, how does it change the way we deal with death, and for that matter, how do we then look at life? This article aims to make its readers aware of this growing phenomenon, allowing them to wonder about its potential importance for the future of internet users.
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3 Comments on “Eternalization: an article.”
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I can tell that you put your heart into this article. Very impressive topic! Honestly the idea behind it never crossed my mind till Friday. It was very interesting to read. I couldn’t help to fixate on the psychology behind mourning and how it is evolving with technology. I like the fact that you didn’t add any images, thus giving it a more serious take on it, which it is that. It was well presented and I can tell you took this topic seriously. It did leave me with a very sad take on things afterwards. More than anything I am curious about what kind of character Ben was. It seems like he was admired deeply. I think that the Internet is not a bad place to express your feelings or thoughts (especially knowing that your not alone) It takes time to heal. Even when others try to sabotage an emotional memorial doesn’t take away from the person’s true remembered character. Great article!
Posted on August 9, 2009 at 10:51 pm.
I really enjoyed this article. The means in which you were able to provide a personal story/anecdote about your relationship to these sites without becoming judgmental of them (and when you are verging on it, finding a quote from someone else to do the dirty work) really makes this entire piece seem well-researched and thought-out. The article really makes you question how we use the web and how we remember the dead.
When my grandmother died a few years back, I was sad, yes. I was a pallbearer at her funeral. I wrote a poem or two about my grief and her memory. And I revisit thoughts of her on occasion. Ben, however, has an ongoing relationship with those who remember him. A “FUNeral” that never ends. The ease of the interwebs have given him a new identity of sorts.
That’s incredibly fascinating to consider.
And now, I shall close by quoting Tori Amos, because I just went to her show perhaps, but mostly because I can:
Just take a closer look
Take a closer look
At what it is that’s really haunting you
I have to trust you’ll know
This DIGITAL GHOST
But I fear there’s only so much time
‘Cause the you I knew is fading away
It’s sort of relevant. Sort of.
Posted on August 10, 2009 at 8:05 pm.
Ian,
This article was fascinating. When Andrew read us of the Facebook policy on memorializing someone’s Facebook page I was floored. It really is a major sign of the strange change that is happening, an at such an accelerated pace online. we have to negotiate with the strange permanence and impermanence of this new medium, both in life and in death.
Posted on August 11, 2009 at 1:57 am.