Memorial page
As a rule, virtual memorial pages ( websites ) for the deceased are called memorial pages , on which family members and friends, but also strangers, express their condolences . There are memorial pages for both humans and pets. The first memorial pages appeared in the early 1990s. The origin and distribution mostly took place through American websites.
Many memorial pages are only created years after the death of a person and thus the farewell is made up for. According to investigations of (English-language) virtual memorial pages by Roberts and Vidal, 7.3 percent of the memorial pages were only set up more than twenty years after the death of the respective person. The date of death as a virtual burial date is therefore irrelevant here. Rather, it is more important that there is a symbolic place that can be meaningfully visited. Accordingly, the focus is on commemoration, remembering and making death (publicly) negotiable. Not only the personal handling of the situation, but also the public presentation is relevant. According to Oliver Schmid's investigation of 10,000 (German-language) virtual memorial pages, 94 percent of people want to create a public memorial page. Only 6 percent opt for a password-protected, non-public memorial page.
Advantages of virtual memorial pages
The advantages of memorial pages are global accessibility and individual design at relatively low costs. Such a memorial page is not only available for a short time, like an obituary notice in a local newspaper, but is also permanently available. Providers of memorial pages offer the possibility of creating your own memorial page for the deceased. Texts, pictures and videos can be published on this memorial page to remind posterity of the deceased. Virtual memorial candles can often be lit.
Disadvantages of virtual memorial pages
The use of a memorial page on the Internet can help in coping with the grief, but not a substitute for saying goodbye at the grave of the deceased. A clear disadvantage of such memorial pages is that non-moderated condolence lists can lead to offensive entries that put additional stress on relatives. If memorial pages remain for years and are not checked regularly, the probability of unwanted entries increases.
literature
- Ira Spieker, Gudrun Schwibbe : Rest in Peace Memorials: last rest in cyberspace , In: c't, 17/2000, page 84
Web links
- The modern way of dealing with death ( Memento from June 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), Aachener Zeitung, May 14, 2013
- Commemoration via the Internet , Berliner Zeitung, February 21, 2013
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Pamela Roberts / Lourdes Vidal (2000): Perpetual Care in Cyberspace: A Portrait of Web Memorials. In: Omega: The Journal od Death and Dying. Vol. 40, H. 4: 521.