Comments on: Life Online After Death

By: adaptive path » blog » Alexa Andrzejewski » Understanding MySpace

adaptive path » blog » Alexa Andrzejewski » Understanding MySpace — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:37:06 +0000

[...] if we just step outside of our polished bubbles to find it. After all, MySpace had played an important role in my life. I jumped on board and looked forward to understanding MySpace, its users, and how the website [...]

By: Konstant

Konstant — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 20:37:01 +0000

Hi , there are good sites dedicated to idea of creation of online memorial and obituries. i am a Senior of one of them http://www.tolive4ever.com
may be you will be intererested in limk to each other

By: Mortis

Mortis — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 22:34:43 +0000

Hello Alexa,
I am an active senior member on MyDeathSpace.

Our site is a forum, with a large portion devoted to MySpace deaths. We do the investigating, discover the cause of death, post the myspace page address, and link to articles. The death articles are heavily moderated, and the general rule is respect. Sometimes though, a troll will start some nonsense, but that happens everywhere.

We have some parents, family and friends who find their loved one’s article. Some use the forum as a part of their grief process, and share stories and pictures. They will keep the kid’s myspace up or start a memorial. One woman took over her son’s myspace, spoke as him in the First Person, and had graphic descriptions and photos of his car accident. This seemed a bit macabre to me, but who am I to judge how one grieves?
Some parent’s try to erase their kid from the net all together. A high percentage of young deaths are caused by suicide or stupidity. Some people try to teach a lesson so their loved one didn’t die in vain, some try to sweep it under the rug.

We may seem voyeuristic and macabre in our affiliation with this site, but in every town, at every water cooler, in every barber shop people discuss deaths, especially unexpected ones. We just cover a larger community, on a virtual plane.

That being said, you folks have a great day.
If you are interested in “virtual remains”, I have a site used for research. http://mydeathsearch.com

By: Michele

Michele — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 22:31:30 +0000

People who have died live on in this World through their family and friends. They also live on through what they have written and said. Many of the big names from the past who still influence us through their Art, their Music, their Writing or even their Inventions actually died quite young. I raise my glass to Zach and drink a toast to him.
Michele xx

By: adaptive path » blog » blog archive » Signposts for the Week ending June 22, 2007

Sat, 23 Jun 2007 05:35:23 +0000

[...] Andrzejewski discusses her blog post, “Life Online After Death” with the BBC’s Radio Five Live. Listen to the audio recording as Alexa discusses the growing [...]

By: Audrey

Audrey — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 18:27:05 +0000

In our small town, we recently had a tragic suicide, father of a 7-yr-old girl and 18-mo-old twins. In his blog, this man spoke openly about previous suicide attempts and about how difficult twins were. I’ve had no success finding out if Blogger is even willing to take the site down. Various “experts” cite his rights to have the blog up there. I worry that this girl, or one of her friends, will find the blog and she’ll spend her life blaming her brothers for her father’s suicide.

Such unlikely but unfortunately possible situations suggest a need for an accessible policy for handling!

By: Alison Weber

Alison Weber — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:46:26 +0000

One thing that I’d like to add is that Alexa’s brother had friends all over the world, and as these far-away friends heard the news of his death, they were alone with no “place” to go. The memorial site gave them a place to go and connected them with all of us and with his other friends.

In a conversation with a friend of mine who’d lost a best friend when they were both in college, my friend told me how important it was for him to have a place to go, which was his friend’s burial site. He still goes there occasionally though many years have passed. Going to a particular cemetery can be pretty inconvenient. The memorial website gives us all a “place” we can go to at any time almost. And, we can see if someone else has been there and know we are not alone in missing him. Alexasmom

By: Michel

Michel — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 08:49:43 +0000

Thank you…

You touched here a question or two which I have posed myself a while ago…

Like, what would be written on some tombstones in 10 years? Maybe 20? Will some people have, apart from the usual “Name & Family Name” & “Lived from 19xx to 20xx”, perhaps a URL with small letters?

What happens when someone dies - someone who had a notorious online presence?

Ken Kifer continues to ‘live’ online, for example… ( http://www.kenkifer.com/bikepages/ )

Others, too…

For me… I dunno.

I wonder.

I would be happy, when one day, when I am no longer walking the Land of the Living, what I have written and painted, will remain, no matter in what form, online or on paper Nuy who knows…

By: Steve Portigal

Steve Portigal — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 03:51:38 +0000

Thanks, Alexa, for a neat post. An open and honest personal take on a phenomena many of us have read about but few of us have experienced, but beyond that a clear explanation for those new to the idea, and some provocative thoughts about where it could/might head…