[Air-l] Myspace Profiles of the Deceased

[Terry Calhoun]

One of my "friends" in MySpace is deceased: 
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=38372072. 
He was a much-loved member of an international community and at the 
moment "he" has 467 friends.

- Terry Calhoun, Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)

Ross Wolinsky wrote:

>Hello All-
>
>My name is Ross Wolinsky.  I'm a freelance writer currently working on an
>article that deals with grieving in the digital age.  It focuses on the ways
>that new technology is being used (particularly by young people), the
>consequences of making the grieving process public (on public web pages),
>and what the phenomenon says about the growing role the internet plays in
>our lives.
>
>I've already talked to Lee Rainie on the subject.  He referred me over to
>Steve Jones, who then advised me to post details about the project here.
>I'm looking to talk to anyone who might have an interest and/or some unique
>insights into the meaning of this phenomenon. Below is a portion of a query
>letter that goes into a bit more detail.  If anyone has any interest, feel
>free to contact me via email at ross.wolinsky (at) gmail dot com.
>
>Thanks, Ross Wolinsky
>
>-----------------------------
>
>Last weekend in Seattle a man named Kyle Huff left a party he was attending,
>came back with a shotgun, and opened fire.  He killed six people before
>turning the gun on himself.  Of the six people he killed, at least four of
>them have MySpace profiles.
>
>
>Now, a few days after the murders, their profiles have become digital
>monuments to the people they were.  More comments are being posted by
>friends on these profiles in death than when they were alive.  It's not
>unique to this incident, either.  Teenagers are using MySpace as a way to
>work through their grief, and it's being done on public web pages.   The
>flipside is that websites are now popping up dedicated to linking to the
>profiles of the recently deceased.   It is a strange phenomenon, and one
>that's never been dealt with before.  It never needed to be.
>
>I'm currently conducting research looking deeper into this phenomenon in the
>hopes of figuring out what exactly this says about the new ways that young
>people are using technology.  I've already been in touch with several
>friends of the deceased in Seattle, a PR person from Friendster (responses
>pending from Myspace and Facebook), and a founding Director of the Pew
>Internet & American Life Project.  I've also been talking to the webmaster
>at www.mydeathspace.com, an increasingly popular website that collects links
>to these profiles.  The site started as a small livejournal community.  He
>says he's now getting 50,000 hits a day.  The article will focus on how
>online grieving is symptomatic of larger trends in internet usage, and also
>on the voyeuristic aspects of conducting what was once private on public web
>pages.
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