Since I’m in the final year of my college education, I have to write a thesis this year. Because I wanted to do something different from the rest, I’ve chosen a maybe unusual topic. I’ve chosen to write something about how people are notified of the death of their online friends.
To support my research, I created an online discussion panel where everyone can reflect about what happens when an online friend dies. I am very interested in the experiences and opinions of people from all around the world and would like to invite you all to join in on the discussion. Maybe you would like to share your own opinions and/or experiences with other people?
If you are interested, don’t hesitate to visit the forum at http://cmdstud.khlim.be/~ahauquier/cyberdeathpanel/. At the moment, there’s not much posted yet, because it’s still very new. I do hope that the forum will see more activity very soon. I also hope this panel will help to bring some awareness about the issues surrounding cyberdeaths.
I you don’t feel comfortable with talking about this rather touchy subject with a strange group, but don’t mind doing so here, you can always post something at these boards. If you have never experienced the death of an online friend (neither have I), you can still talk about the subject.
These are some of the questions I have:
- Have you ever experienced the death of an online friend?
- Do you have a lot of (close) online friends whose true identity is unknown to you?
- Would you want people online to know you’ve died and not just ‘disappeared’?
- Would you feel justified in mourning the death of an online friend, even if you never really met this person?
- Would you talk about it with ‘real life’ persons or would you keep it to yourself because of it being too personal, or you being a bit ashamed or whatever?
- Would you feel uncomfortable with an online obituary (here at the boards or somewhere else?)
- ...
I would greatly appreciate any input!
