For some facebook is a continual Open Casket, a way to communicate with the dead long after they are gone. This has special appeal for the generation that grew up on My Space and continues their life on Facebook.
A Facebook Profile can be a perpetual memorial.
...a search ofFacebook groups titled In Memory of
turned up more than 55,000 results, and a search for
Rest in Peace turned up more than 14,000.
Facebook is a great place for online memorials
For the generation that spent high school on MySpace andcollege on Facebook, its only natural to seek out the Web in times of need.
When Northwestern freshman Trevor Boehm died in November 2008, friends and family members flocked to a common gathering spot to mourn together and share their disbelief: Facebook. It was all many of them could do, since his three older sisters were back home in Monument, Colo., and high school friends were away at colleges all over the United States. Initially reported missing by his parents when they arrived for Parents’ Weekend and couldn’t locate him, 20-year-old Boehm’s body was found several days later in Lake Michigan near Chicago’s Montrose harbor. News of a candlelight vigil and two funerals, one at Northwestern and one at home, were spread through the “Rest in Peace Trevor Jon Boehm” memorial group on Facebook.
Many friends posted photos in the group or wrote messages on his personal page, expressing their grief and saying how much they would miss him. But more than a year after his death, Trevor Boehm’s Facebook friends are still writing to him, updating him on Nip/Tuck episodes he’s missed and Thai dinners he couldn’t attend. “Writing on his Facebook gives me a way to communicate with him because I feel like somehow he knows what’s being written,” says Ali Boehm, his older sister. “I go on there whenever I have a memory or thought of him. It’s a good outlet for just proactively communicating with him.”
A Facebook Profile can be a perpetual “OPEN CASKET” As Facebook and other social networking Web sites become more important to human interaction, these technologies are changing the way people cope with loss. In a world where our digital lives are as real those offline, a person’s Facebook profile postmortem is a virtual open casket. -via www.dailynorthwestern.com
For those who choose to ignore the Facebook Memoralization Option, and do not close the deceased’s account FACEBOOK BECOMES AN ALMOST PERPETUAL MEMORIAL.
Funeral Industry|Funeral| Funeral News| Blog by Your Funeral Guy.
There is a new type of facebook death-Facebook Suicide- death announcing your funeral by suicide note posting on facebook. Suicide is tragic no matter where and when it happens But posting a suicide note on Facebook Profile-is a a strange way to announce your death and impending funeral. It shows that social media is an inadeaquate form and no substitute for human contact.
A recent Suicide Note was posted on a subscribers profile.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.– Emergency officials rushed to an apartment in St. George this afternoon, after they received word a man claimed he was going to kill himself in a post to his Facebook.com profile.
“I can’t go on anymore. I just hung myself.” An unnamed man in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island put this and other disturbing notes on his Facebook page this afternoon, the Staten Island Advance reports. Friends saw the notes and, unable to reach him by phone, contacted authorities, who sent EMT workers to his home. But it was too late — the man was found dead, apparently by his own hand.
His notes indicate he was worried that he was going to be fired, and had some difficulty managing his psych medications (“When I take my meds I’m manic when I don’t I’m severely depressed like I am now”).
A Facebook Memorial has run into some legal trouble in Canada. Apparently the popularity of the memorial on facebook for a two year old murdered boy may pollute a jury pool, violate a court order and a publication ban.
FACEBOOK HAS RUN INTO SOME TROUBLE WITH A FUNERAL MEMORIAL.
As a grief-stricken family prepared the funeral for a two-year-old Oshawa boy slain in a basement apartment, thousands of people turned to Facebook to memorialize the child.
But as mourners — some family, some friends, even complete strangers — post condolences, photos and apparent theories of how the toddler was killed, they could be breaking a court-ordered publication ban.
Neither the victim nor the accused, the mother’s 26-year-old boyfriend, can be publicly identified.via www.metronews.ca
Funeral Industry|Funeral News | Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.
Facebook pic from flickr under the creative commons license from
Here are the Top 5 technologies that will give funerals bounce in 2010!
Revealed here are the Five Tecnologies that will give funerals bounce in 2010.
1.HTML 5 will be with us in 2010. The return of Soldiers from Iraq. Funerals Videos and webcasting will be done by the family. Boy did I get in trouble for saying this in a funeral forum. They kicked me out! The Funeral directors were angry beyond human when I suggested this.
You can have free blog with video in three clicks. HTML 5 will eliminate(Flash) obstacle. Returning Veterans are trained in all aspects of Internet Video. A Video and computer novice will be able to pull off memorial dvds and webcasting. Psst Funeral Directors use webcasting, dvds to increase fees. This practice will decline.
2.MOBILE Phone Video Live streaming apps are becoming more commonplace—both streaming from phones and to them. As mobile data networks beef up their 3G bandwidth into true broadband with 4G mobile video, consumer funeral webcasting will be here. Advance cell phones will be computers and it will affect funerals. Even online video obits will be free very soon.
3. GEOLOCATING will be able to locate folks in real time. Dead folks too ! Graves as well.Families will be able to adjust the timing of funerals and burials so will the funeral director. Delayed folks will not miss out on funerals. Geolocating graves will be more common place to prevent funeral and cemetery scandal.
4.Facebook and twitter are quickly becoming biz socialmedia Commerce sites- As Funeral homes use the advanced apps (already Here) The funeral consumers anger will rise even further. Privacy will be violated in death.
5. Real time search-This is coming into it’s own. Did a Funeral Director mess up a funeral. Was there a scandal?The next family may know about it almost immediately.
Funeral Industry| Funeral News| Funeral blog by Your Funeral Guy.
The last few year have been hard on everyone. I am glad you made it till 2010.
Counting Down to Number 1 of the Top 100 Funeral News stories of 2009, the last count is 25-1. Several Last minute stories probably should be in the top 100.Some of those posts maybe, Batesville enters the cemetery (vault) business,the almost funerals of Flight 253, returning Iraq Veterans and the Funeral Business ,The Batesville Demise of 09, funerals from the Flight of AF 447, National memorial Services in 2009 , as well as SCI and their special Deals with the FTC.
The most important stories of 2009 are Walmart Selling caskets and the Facebook Memorial. The handling of Digital Assets in a funeral arrangement will be an Important Funeral News Story in the years ahead. I have received threats, threats of lawsuits, website hacks, and been booted out of forums because of my Funeral News stories written from the Consumers perspective.
Here ae the Top 25 Funeral Stories of 2009:2(5.25)
24 . Service Corporation International, mishandled the Kennedy Funeral From a funeral directors perspective Service corporation International totally mishandled the Kennedy Funeral in Front of 4 Living Presidents! They Nation watched and waited in wasted air time because Teddy did not get to the cemetery on time.
13. SCI Denies wrong doing in Veterans Corpse Abuse ScandalService Corporation International seems never to admit wrong doing and finds a way to pay themselves out of any scandal- EvenVeterans Corpse Abuse for those headed to Arlington National Cemetery from National Funeral Home.
11.Brittany Murphy Death and Funeral|has celebrity death gone too far n 2009?The death of this young star near the end of 2009 is the focus many, as the world focused on Celebrities and their funerals in 2009.
10.Service Corporation International’s Burr Oak Cem. ScandalThe Scandal at Service Corporation International outside Los Angeles at Eden Memorial Park. was worse than Burr Oak cemetery Scandal outside Chicago. This Scandal received little National Press.
4.Michael Jackson MemorialThe Michael Jackson Memorial Service may be the most viewed Funeral Of All Time.
3.Sadly|Pics,Places,Logo Virginia SCI Body Desecrations This World’s Largest Funeral Corporation, Service Corporation International is given the Nickname Big Death in 2009 by the company employees. In Houston SCI is known the Enron evil. The Funeral company’s reputation for scandal is known to most Americans.
2. When someone dies setup a Facebook MemorialThe Facebook memorial has awakened the Funeral Industry to the importance of the online obituary, Facebook participation and digital assets.
1 .Walmart Selling caskets online Walmart selling caskets has frightened the Funeral Industry. Industry leadership says no big deal but the fact that caskets are being sold at Walmart has opened the mind of consumers to funeral purchase options beyond the Funeral Director.
Did I miss your funeral story? Please let me know with a comment.
Disagree? Leave a comment.
Funeral Industry|Funeral Blog by Your Funeral Guy.
Bill on 
on 
