https://michaeljaylissner.com/2009-05-13T11:25:10-07:002009-05-13T11:25:10-07:00Mike Lissnertag:michaeljaylissner.com,2009-05-13:posts/2009/05/13/final-paper-on-online-memorialization-by-default/

<p>Yesterday I had an epic writing session, and finished <a href="https://michaeljaylissner.com/pdfs/online-grieving.pdf">my final paper</a> for my class on the social and organizational issues of&nbsp;information.</p> <p>The topic of my paper was a bit on the morbid side, but somehow that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m doing a lot of work on this semester. The concept for the paper is that as more and more people create and have online profiles on social networking sites, a system is created where more and more people have an online memorial when they die, whether they intend to or&nbsp;not.</p> <p>This topic became interesting to me about a year ago when my friend Blake Bigler died of a sudden heart attack (at the age of 25). Immediately afterwards, his Facebook page became a memorial to him where friends posted messages, pictures and the like. To this day, friends still wish him a happy birthday, and post notes on his&nbsp;page.</p> <p>I thought that this was a dramatic change to the way that deaths occur and are memorialized, and that it needed to be analyzed more carefully, and so my paper was born. If you&#8217;re interested, please feel free to&nbsp;read.</p>