Meaning, if someone dies, keep his/her myspace/facebook as is before death! That's a good memorabilia on that person's life!

Also, facebook pages have Walls! So you can post memorials on that person's wall! Obviously, the deceased won't see it, HOWEVER it will notify others searching for that person that the person has passed away!

It may not be perfect, but that's the best thing I could think of for now!

An old high school friend died a couple years ago, and his scattered friends sort of "congregated" on someone's blog to share stories and reminisce and express our grief. His mom posted a nice note later saying that she was glad to see these memories and thoughts.

It's nice to be able to connect with people who knew the departed because, with the way people scatter these days, you might not be near anyone else who knew the person. It's isolating.

For the past 20 years, I have been on small BBS sites where a custom has evolved that has proved meaningful to all of us.

When someone within the community dies, the information is posted in an Obits section. Once it is confirmed, a Rose appears on the main banner with the person's name. The Rose remains up for a week or so, while tributes are collected in Obits.

I'm still in awe at how modern society does not perceive of how these technologies must evolve.. they set up this site, with absolutely no thought as so how to handle death?

the lack of proactive reality is breathtaking!!

.. still gasping for breath at this utter stupidity of humanity...

Classless indeed.

That's the sister-C in capitalism.

.. always thought FB was annoying without additional stupidity..

and sad indeed for those emotionally affected by their carelessness.

A classmate of mine passed away suddenly earlier this month. I find it a bit unsettling that he still appears as a friend suggestion on Facebook.

This appears to be a step in the right direction...

I just link to them on Facebook. See? I'm a deep person who pretends to care.

I expect that you'd appreciate the chapter (in Allan Gurganus's novel "Plays Well With Others")in which he ponders the business of maintaining and retaining address books (the actual, physical-book sort folks used to have).

Sincerely,

David Terry

www.davidterryart.com

I recently became aware of how "new technology" means new rituals in death. My mom died of old age and, a few months later, my partner died of cancer. So there I was at a memorial party I threw in my partner's honor with several of our friends. I chose that moment to delete both their names from my cellphone. I mean, when do you delete your mom's name? The day she dies? A bit later when you happen to think of it? I felt better doing it with my friends around.

My mom never had Facebook or MySpace. But my partner is still out there. On Second Life, we're still standing on a sidewalk together as far as I know. I haven't felt like signing on. I have her password. I suppose at some time, I'll figure out how to delete our accounts. For now, I prefer to be there with my head bowed next to her. One last place that we're still together, sort of.

So Second Life citizens may have to wonder, when they see inactive figures on the landscape, is that someone who's just offline, or is it one of the Second Life Undead?

they ought to allow users to include a "last will and testament" in their Facebook profile that shows the picture and the status that they'd like to display in the unfortunate event of their getting memorialized.

Instead of having your last words be something like "is texting from the dentist chair" you could set up a nice pithy Voltaire quote to sign off with, and a picture of yourself in your sunday best.

Maybe a little morbid but a lot better than having a random status update carved into one's virtual headstone for all time.

I don't mean that morally, I mean it isn't the way to go. My daughter lost a friend very suddenly this fall, and the Facebook memorial thing took over. It was incredibly alienating for her, and yet there was no other means for the community of this kid -- he dropped dead of an aneurism at the age of 23 -- to be in touch with each other. This is the way it is now?

I lost a dear uncle last year, and while I was called by my mother with the news first, my wife learned about it via Facebook posting. It seemed a terribly inappropriate way to learn about the event.

A person I'd grown up around and who I liked but who I'd never considered a close friend passed away a few years ago, and to this day his wide circle of friends (he was one of those people who connected so well with others, plus we're from a small city where everyone starts to know each other) continue to post comments on his myspace page. After reading this article I went and looked at his page, and I was struck with a feeling I'd had before when looking at the site. Even though I don't use myspace anymore, I wished and wish I was friends with him on there, so that I could post a comment or a photo, or maybe even, as silly as it feels, but considered among those folks he called friends. For all my skepticism about social networking, it's funny when it ends up feeling somehow important.

Signature = His myspace page

I, too, lost a friend suddenly this year. His wife has chosen to keep his Facebook account active with pictures and stories about their little daughter.

What's cool is that other friends keep posting pictures and stories, tagging our departed friend along the way. He was a big sports fan, for example, and people have posted pics of sports crowds and 'tagged' him in them. Corny, maybe, but I think it's cool.

Like Mary Elizabeth, at first I found it really strange and quite sad to get the FB nudges about my now-gone friend. I'm glad, though, now, to have some connection to his family, even if he's gone.

But what a shame he'll never improve on his 'Scramble' score :-) (RIP Kyle, we miss you!)