How To Have an Online Social Life When You're Dead

A wave of new companies are springing up to offer such things as virtual cemeteries, alerts to remind loved ones about the anniversary of your death, and even email services that send an alert to your sinful relatives in danger of being left behind when the Rapture carries you away. "People have a desire to perpetuate not only for themselves, but for their loved ones, the story of their lives, and technology has all these new great ways of doing that," said John McQueen, owner of the Anderson McQueen funeral home.

Comments

They have that...

[XPeter]

Here http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3145432

No e-life after death but obits are moving online

[lawaetf1]

Sites like tributes.com are popping up to make the death experience more facebook-compatible.

Online guest books, youtube videos, massive databases of the dead, etc.

It makes sense given the decline of the newspaper and the traditional paper obit.

Step in the wrong direction

[mc1138]

Seems like its a little creepy and might interfere with the grieving process. I'd love to see what a psychologist would say about all this.

Good idea

[clarkkent09]

The whole custom of periodically visiting the graves of your loved ones always seemed puzzling to me. What exactly are you visiting and why? If you can do it online that much less hassle I guess.

If you really have to go a particular place in order to remember your dead grandparents, it seems better to visit places where they lived, where you actually have memories of them alive. In any case, since 82% of Americans believe that their dead relatives are actually still alive, seems more "logical" (in a demented sort of way) to visit a psychic or something.

Re:Good idea

[Anonymous Coward]

In my case, the grave site is one my parents picked out while they were alive. I feel a connection to them because of that.

Re:Good idea

[sesshomaru]

A young wife fell sick and was about to die. "I love you so much," she told her husband, "I do not want to leave you. Do not go from me to any other woman. If you do, I will return as a ghost and cause you endless trouble."

Soon the wife passed away. The husband respected her last wish for the first three months, but then he met another woman and fell in love with her. They became engaged to be married.

Immediately after the engagement a ghost appeared every night to the man, blaming him for not keeping his promise. The ghost was clever too. She told him exactly what had transpired between himself and his new sweetheart. Whenever he gave his fiancee a present, the ghost would describe it in detail. She would even repeat conversations, and it so annoyed the man that he could not sleep. Someone advised him to take his problem to a Zen master who lived close to the village. At length, in despair, the poor man went to him for help.

"Your former wife became a ghost and knows everything you do, " commented the master. "Whatever you do or say, whatever you give your beloved, she knows. She must be a very wise ghost. Really you should admire such a ghost. The next time she appears, bargain with her. Tell her that she knows so much you can hide nothing from her, and that if she will answer you one question, you promise to break your engagement and remain single."

"What is the question I must ask her?" inquired the man.

The master replied: "Take a large handful of soy beans and ask her exactly how many beans you hold in your hand. If she cannot tell you, you will know that she is only a figment of your imagination and will trouble you no longer."

The next night, when the ghost appeared the man flattered her and told her that she knew everything.

"Indeed," replied the ghost, "and I know you went to see that Zen master today."

"And since you know so much," demanded the man, "tell me how many beans I hold in this hand!"

There was no longer any ghost to answer the question.

-- Zen Flesh, Zen Bones By Paul Reps, Nyogen Senzaki

Re:and how's the Betamax dispensing tombstone doin

[IceCreamGuy]

Hey, Betamax isn't dead; It lives in my apartment. Seriously though, the Internet truly is the graveyard of technology. Where else could you find someone who offers Betamax cleaning instructions and repair service? Hang in there Superbeta HiFi!

Ben Teague

[greg_barton]

How odd that this story would come up today.

Ben wasn't my uncle for long, and I didn't know him well, but we lost him on Saturday in the most senseless way. My other uncle, who knew him since childhood, posted a tribute to him on his blog.

I only met Ben once, when my grandfather married his mother, but I could tell he was a great guy then. I wasn't the only one. Why people have to die like this is beyond me, but at least now more people can know who Ben was, and what he meant to his community.

Re:Left Behind...

[CraftyJack]

It'd be cute if those people just lost internet access and everything were sent out early... or would that cause the RAPTURE? ;)

Better yet, what would the remaining users do with the knowledge that the rapture came, but they weren't taken?

They have this 20 Minutes into the Future

[chiefthe]

There was this sort of thing in an episode of Max Headroom, where you could leave a few videos of yourself for your loved ones to interact. Of course, the implementation was backed by a corrupt industrialist, who had coin slots on the interaction kiosks, soaking people for their cash.

Hopefully in our world Edison Carter will be there to right the wrongs this new technology will cause.

Re:creep out your enemys

[Anonymous Coward]

Delayed emails that do not get sent until after my death.

That happened to me already. Had a very close friend die suddenly. A few days after the funeral I see a new email pop up in Outlook from him. It was quite shocking. Of course after a moment or two I realized what it was, but for the first few moments it was still rather quite a shock.

You would think it would be funny, or interesting. In my case it was just painful, as for just a second, I thought he might not be dead.

My 2 cents.

Re:Maybe

[jcnnghm]

I look at this a bit differently. I recently had a friend that died quite unexpectedly, at 20 years old. Basically, he went into his room one day, and never came back out. Facebook has been an invaluable resource. Since his death, thousands of pictures and stories have been posted that really filled in some memories of someone that I'll never see again. Personally, I don't go to funerals or any of that other stuff, because I feel like all you end up remembering is how bad that was, instead of how good they were.

I can't imagine setting something like this up for yourself, but it is kind of nice to have for others.