Virtual cemetery
As a rule, websites are referred to as virtual cemeteries (also "Internet cemetery ", "network cemetery" or "online cemetery") on which one or more memorial pages can be created for the deceased. Family members and friends, but also strangers, can use these pages to express their condolences . Virtual cemeteries exist for both humans and pets. The first virtual cemeteries were in the early 1990s. The emergence and distribution mostly took place through American Internet sites.
Advantages of virtual memorial pages
The advantages of virtual cemeteries are worldwide accessibility of the memorial pages and the individual design at relatively low costs. Such a website is not only accessible for a short time, like an obituary notice in a local newspaper, but is also permanently available. There is also the possibility of a place of mourning for burials on the "green meadow" without a personal burial site. Virtual cemeteries usually offer the option of creating your own memorial page for the deceased. This site is often referred to as the “online grave”. Texts and pictures can be published on the memorial page to remind posterity of the deceased. Virtual memorial candles can often be lit. It is also possible to create family trees in some virtual cemeteries.
Disadvantages of virtual cemeteries
The use of a virtual cemetery can help in coping with grief , but cannot replace 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 pages of condolence persist for years and are not checked regularly, the likelihood of unwanted entries increases.
Web links
- Virtual cemeteries: Remembrance via the Internet , Berliner Zeitung, February 21, 2013
- The cemetery is just a click away , SWR, November 23, 2012
- Memorial portals and Facebook pages: Internet mourning is experiencing a boom , Berliner Zeitung, April 10, 2012
- Grave site on the Internet: A community for the dead - Environment - FAZ Frankfurter Allgemeine, November 17, 2011
- Grave maintenance at the click of a mouse , Neues Deutschland, December 18, 2010
- Mourning at the click of a mouse , Spiegel-Online, November 1, 2009
- Background: More and more cemeteries on the Internet , Heise Online, October 27, 2000
literature
- Ira Spieker, Gudrun Schwibbe: Rest in Peace Memorials: last rest in cyberspace , In: c't, 17/2000, page 84
- Norbert Fischer : Topic: Future of cemeteries Digital mourning: The memorials of the World Wide Web , In: Journal for Mourning Culture , No. 76, I, February 15, 2002
- Ira Spieker, Gudrun Schwibbe: Only the forgotten are really dead. On the cultural significance of virtual cemeteries. , In: Norbert Fischer, Markwart Herzog (ed.): Nekropolis. The cemetery as a place of the dead and the living. , Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2005 (Irseer Dialoge, 10), 229–242, ISBN 3-17-018508-X
- Nina Trentmann: Internet cemeteries "Love is immortal, death is just a horizon" , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, November 16, 2004, No. 268, page 38