1st Edition
Digital Afterlife Death Matters in a Digital Age
Despite the range of studies into grief and mourning in relation to the digital, research to date largely focuses on the cultural practices and meanings that are played out in and through digital environments. Digital Afterlife brings together experts from diverse fields who share an interest in Digital Afterlife and the wide-ranging issues that relate to this. The book covers a variety of matters that have been neglected in other research texts, for example:
- The legal, ethical, and philosophical conundrums of Digital Afterlife
- The ways digital media are currently being used to expand the possibilities of commemorating the dead and managing the grief of those left behind
Our lives are shaped by and shape the creation of our Digital Afterlife as the digital has become a taken for granted aspect of human experience. This book will be of interest to undergraduates from computing, theology, business studies, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and education from all types of institutions. Secondary audiences include researchers and postgraduate researchers with an interest in the digital.
At a practical level, the cost of data storage and changing data storage systems mitigate the likelihood of our digital presence existing in perpetuity. Whether we create accidental or intentional digital memories, this has psychological consequences for ourselves and for society. Essentially, the foreverness of forever is in question.
Maggi Savin-Baden is Professor of Higher Education Research at the University of Worcester. She has a strong publication record of over 50 research publications and 17 books.
Victoria Mason-Robbie is a Chartered Psychologist and an experienced lecturer having worked in the Higher Education sector for over 15 years. Her current research focuses on evaluating web-based avatars, pedagogical agents, and virtual humans.
Acknowledgements
Editors
Contributors
Introduction
Maggi Savin-Baden and Victoria Mason-Robbie
Chapter 1 ◾ Perspectives on Digital Afterlife
Maggi Savin-Baden and Victoria Mason-Robbie
Chapter 2 ◾ Social Media and Digital Afterlife
Elaine Kasket
Chapter 3 ◾ Posthumous Digital Material: Does It ‘Live On’ in Survivors’ Accounts of Their Dead?
Mórna O’Connor
Chapter 4 ◾ The Transition from Life to the Digital Afterlife: Thanatechnology and Its Impact on Grief
Carla Sofka
Chapter 5 ◾ Profit and Loss: The Mortality of the Digital Immortality Platforms
Debra Bassett
Chapter 6 ◾ The ‘New(ish)’ Property, Informational Bodies, and Postmortality
Edina Harbinja
Chapter 7 ◾ Digital Remains: The Users’ Perspectives
Tal Morse and Michael Birnhack
Chapter 8 ◾ Legal Issues in Digital Afterlife
Gary F. Rycroft
Chapter 9 ◾ Building a Digital Immortal
David Burden
Chapter 10 ◾ Philosophical Investigations into Digital Afterlife
John Reader
Chapter 11 ◾ Postdigital Afterlife: A Philosophical Framework
Petar Jandrić
Chapter 12 ◾ Digital Afterlife Matters
Victoria Mason-Robbie and Maggi Savin-Baden
GLOSSARY
INDEX
Biography
Maggi Savin-Baden, Victoria Mason-Robbie