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We may die, but the Web lives on

Started by mathewi · 9 months ago

My friend Ethan Kaplan over at blackrimglasses has a fascinating post about the death of a geek acquaintance — Mark Hoekstra — and the strange feeling that is created by seeing his blog posts, Flickr photos, Last.fm contributions and other elements of his online life floa ... Continue reading »

9 comments

  • antje wilsch

    9 months ago

    Well i'm going to jump in here and make a plea (plug). Our site is exactly for this reason - to leave your footprint behind. I think it's important for your girls that you save those memorials you created so they can learn about their grandparents and tell their kids. Those sites get lost when someone stops paying the hosting fee, or the blog goes out of buiness or "retires" old, inactive blogs etc. Putting stories and keeping pictures and videos stored online is not a be-all-end-all but it's another insurance policy these precious things are lost.
    Plus - there is a lot of stuff about you (anyone) out there already, so why not control the story that your childrens' children will be reading years from now.... I am a big big advocate of doing this. I do genealogy and it's so cool when I find some document in the archives like a draft card or an old photo, but who are these people? What did they think? What did they do? Those are, to me, more valuable than riches.
    reply
  • Keith Shepard

    9 months ago

    Hmmm....I'm not as jarred, but that's not to say that I'm not moved.

    It's no more jarring to read the dead's thoughts online then it is to watch an old Bob Hope movie. One can argue that knowing someone and then reading their blog posts or viewing their photos is different then not knowing a media personality, but I don't think so. It's all the same to me.

    Not that it isn't weird. I think Matt Johnson known as the band The The summed it up best in his song "Love Is Stronger Than Death":

    In our lives we hunger for those we cannot touch.
    All the thoughts unuttered & all the feelings unexpressed
    Play upon our hearts like the mist upon our breath.
    But, awoken by grief, our spirits speak
    "How could you believe that the life within the seed
    that grew arms that reached
    And a heart that beat.
    And lips that smiled
    And eyes that cried.
    Could ever die?"
    reply
  • buzz

    9 months ago

    I wrote about something similar, digital estate planning, back in the spring. I was inspired by an interview local blogger Derek K Miller did with CBC's Spark.

    http://www.cyberbuzz.com/2008/05/14/digital-est...
    reply
  • antje wilsch

    9 months ago

    I saw that - that was a good one. It's one of the problems we're trying to provide a solution for. There was a story on MSN not too long ago about a gentleman whose father passed away suddenly; he had an online business, and the son was trying to get into his computer to access all his files to fulfill orders, get the financials in order etc. He spent six months calling various service providers to explain the situation and try to unlock passwords and let those customers know, answer emails, etc -- it was a nightmare, and this will happen more as everyone moves online.
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  • Leighna

    9 months ago

    So true, yet another strange way the Internet has changed our lives.
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  • Ethan Kaplan

    9 months ago

    Correction: I didn't know the guy, just found it on the Make blog
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  • mathewi

    9 months ago

    Thanks, Ethan -- wasn't sure whether you knew of him before you came across the news. In any case, thanks for a great post -- it really got me thinking.
    reply
  • kevinCougar

    9 months ago

    that is very touching, My Dad died long time ago, He is a good man, always take care of others. I never write anything after he died. I should have..
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  • Gilliebee

    9 months ago

    I had a similar experience... My mom died in 2005. We still have a memorial page active, and, even stranger, I can't bring myself to remove her contact info from my outlook.

    I also had a friend, young (44), die recently and suddenly. His facebook page, his wall, became a place where many of us came together to mourn, share memories, express our shock.... And now all of that is frozen in time. In fact most of us were posting replies to his own last post, on the eve of his death, about his recent health troubles, which he felt were mainly behind him. I still visit that page every so often.
    reply

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