The Creation and Inheritance of Digital Afterlives: You Only Live Twice

Description

This book explores how social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp ‘accidentally’ enable and nurture the creation of digital afterlives, and, importantly, the effect this digital inheritance has on the bereaved. Debra J. Bassett offers a holistic exploration of this phenomenon and presents qualitative data from three groups of participants: service providers, digital creators, and digital inheritors. For the bereaved, loss of data, lack of control, or digital obsolescence can lead to a second loss, and this book introduces the theory of ‘the fear of second loss’. Bassett argues that digital afterlives challenge and disrupt existing grief theories, suggesting how these theories might be expanded to accommodate digital inheritance. This interdisciplinary book will be of interest to sociologists, cyber psychologists, philosophers, death scholars, and grief counsellors. But Bassett’s book can also be seen as a canary in the coal mine for the ‘intentional’ Digital Afterlife Industry (DAI) and their race to monetise the dead. This book provides an understanding of the profound effects uncontrollable timed posthumous messages and the creation of thanabots could have on the bereaved, and Bassett’s conception of a Digital Do Not Reanimate (DDNR) order and a voluntary code of conduct could provide a useful addition to the DAI. Even in the digital societies of the West, we are far from immortal, but perhaps the question we really need to ask is: who wants to live forever? Preface Acknowledgements Contents About the Author Abbreviations List of Figures List of Tables Chapter 1: Introduction: Contextualising Digital Afterlives But We’ve Always Remembered the Dead, Haven’t We? Clarifying the Taxonomy The Internet as a Site for Memorialisation Digital Immortality and the Fourth Path Discussing Death: From Taboo to Cyber Space The Lived Experience of Dying The Nitty Gritty The Radio Host and the Tweet Exploring Digital Afterlives: An Overview of the Chapters References Chapter 2: The Service Providers: Both Intentional and Accidental It’s Personal: The Motivations of the SPs Intentional Digital Afterlife Platforms Messages from The Dead: One-Way Digital Afterlife Platforms The Reanimation of the Dead: Two-Way Digital Afterlife Service Providers Accidental Digital Afterlife Platforms References Chapter 3: A Philosophical Detour The Digital Resurrection of the Dead and Socially Active Digital Zombies The Changing Landscape of the Uncanny Valley Real or Virtual? Where the Digital Dead Reside A Digital Nachlass References Chapter 4: From Digital Footprints to the Ultimate Selfie: The Experiences and Motivations of Digital Creators Research Lurking: The Public/Private Dichotomy of Social Media Platforms Digital Scholarship and Digital Sociology The Motivations of Digital Creators Benevolence Therapy Continuing Bonds Technophilia The Quest for Digital Immortality References Chapter 5: Why Do Digital Afterlives Matter? The Experiences and Motivations of Digital Inheritors Collecting Data: Using Skype, the Why and How Conducting Qualitative Research with the Bereaved Introducing the DI Participants The Link Between Access and Control The Voices of the Dead Timing, Frequency and Triggers Timed Posthumous Messages: The Unintended Consequences The Digital Versus the Physical The Essence of the Dead The Comfort, Disruption and Confusion of Digital Afterlives The Comfort of Knowing Others Care Grief in the Era of COVID-19 References Chapter 6: Losing the Data of the Dead and Expanding Existing Models of Bereavement Sociology and Death The Fear of Second Loss Grief and Bereavement: The Theories Stage Theory The Dual Process Model Continuing Bonds Theory The Internet and Continuing Bonds Theory Off the Beaten Track: Growing Around Grief Digital Dislocation: The Disturbance to the Dual Process Model Digital Bonds: An Expansion of Continuing Bonds Theory References Chapter 7: The Future of Digital Death Designing for Mourning in a Digital Society Designing Without Thanatosensitive Consideration Just Because You Can … Remembering and Forgetting the Digital Dead DDNR: Digital Do Not Reanimate Profit and Loss: A Voluntary Code of Conduct for the Digital Afterlife Industry References Chapter 8: Final Thoughts and Reflection Self-reflection: Honesty and Learning #saytheirname When Participants ‘out’ Themselves The Limitations A Final Word Further Resources Digital Legacies: Planning Ahead and at Time of Death Sharing ‘Bad News’/Death Notification/Informing About Events Grieving Online Providing Support to the Bereaved Providing Support to the Bereaved (Continued) Taking and Sharing Images/Photos Taking and Sharing Images/Photos (Continued) Live-streaming/Webcasting a Funeral or Memorial Service Digital Survivor Advocacy: Using Digital and Social Media Following a Death or Tragedy to Advocate for a Cause or a Change in Awareness, Behaviour or Policy (Also Known as Hashtag Activism) Resource List: Supporting the Bereaved Offline Resource List: Clichés/What NOT to Say References Index