Online memorials: the virtual as the new vernacular

Abstract

Abstract This paper explores the significance of virtual space to the bereaved, as a site of remembrance and focus for mourning practices and expression of emotions. It is argued that in the countries of the developed north west, such as the UK, where a high proportion of the population are computer literate and are used to working with and communicating through virtual technology, such as social networking sites, the internet has been established as a normal place for remembering the dead. Remembrance is in part shaped by typical net practices and terminology, as well as by the technological possibilities of the internet, which, combined, accommodate ongoing uploading and editing of images, text, music and gifts. This gives these memorials a vibrant and dynamic contemporary character which is often expressed through colloquial idiom and popular culture, thereby representing and constituting aspects of the vernacular. Some social networking sites and more formal memorial hosts, such as commercial or chari...

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