Death in the Digital World

Abstract

The ghosts of lost loved ones have always haunted us, but the undefined role of the dead, the dying, and the grieving in the digital world is an ever-growing cultural haunting. This paper explores how memories of the dead are shifted and changed in the deceased’s lingering digital presence, how grief is altered by the digital world, and the uncertainties that arise with no etiquette book to guide us through death in the digital world. As this new phenomenon encroaches on our lives, where does technological innovation used to remember the dead meet an attempt to resurrect them?