The creation of the Internet has transformed and revolutionized in many aspects the process of mourning through unification of mourners both geographically and collectively, by creating ‘deathwork mediators’ through online support networks and changing whom the deathworkers are. The Internet has also aided the way individuals communicate with the deceased through continued dialogue. The Internet has additionally has had some impact on the development of the death-denying thesis within western culture.
Framing grief, mourning and the Internet in modern society: Death is a universal experience for all of human kind. Mourning as expressions of grief is a practice that has existed as long as human life itself and therefore has taken on many forms from elaborate ceremonies to mourn the dead, to the types of clothing and amount of societal participation a family is allowed to complete following the death of the deceased. Mourning is defined as the public process of acknowledging grief (Rosenblatt, 2001), whilst grief is the private process of grieving the loss of the deceased (Rosenblatt, 2001). A powerful voice in defining and discussing the process …show more content…
Following the introduction of the Internet or cyberspace to society a new platform to mediate grief and mourning appeared in individual’s lives. The Internet is an online computer network that allows communication and facilitates that transfer of information in the cyber sphere (Troyer et al., 2012). Cyberspace became a space where people can anomously or openly mourning the dead whilst grieving. As a result of the technological age that society inhabits there has been an evolution in the methods of mourning in cyber space. In recent history people have moved from remebering their loved ones in a virtual cemetary to memorialisation. A virtual cemetry was the first form of memorialisation that appeared in the late 1980s prior to the memorialised pages of Facebook and Myspace today. A virtual cememtry is an online manifestation of a grave yard that allows people to memoralise others whilst spanning time and space. Virtual Graveyard an online cemetary defines a virtual cemetry as a space where people can create history and memories about loved ones that can be preserved for future generations (Virtual Graveyard, 2006). The cemetries require guests to log in, or sign a guest book, leaving personal details about the visit and usually a message to the deceased’s family. Visitors can also leave flowers and messages for the dead on message boards. When an individual visits a virtual