Staying Alive

In terms of obituaries Connecticut is more like New York than Massachusetts.  In Massachusetts newspapers most obituaries are 5 - 10 lines, some have a photo of the deceased.  In New York some obituaries can take up a whole column of the NY Times, at least half have photos of the deceased. 

Some write their own obituary in the hope that they can be remembered as an upstanding citizen and in the belief that those left behind would ignore some key aspects of the deceased's life.

I'm talking about obituaries because I've just learned about what appears to be a growing trend on the web: building an on-line memorial which captures the deceased's interactions with the web.  The 'builders' are companies trying to make a buck.  

Basically what these companies do is put on the web your photos, videos and anything else of the deceased you deem important.  One of these firms hopes "that members will arrange tight social networks of their “tribes,” family and closest friends to build portraits of themselves that aren’t distorted by memory or the misplacing of digital artifacts. Then when a member dies, that online profile remembers accurately and contextually what was significant in that person’s life."

I suspect that these sites will eventually - if they survive - become like cemeteries.  You may visit them once a year.  After your immediate survivors die, only historians might look at your site.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/04/03/144021/companies-take-on-the-business.html#storylink=cpy