I guess in the world of the internet anything is possible, but “funerals online”? I would not have thought that anything as personal as a funeral would ever work on the internet. But it is and is steadily growing. There is funeralcast.com, and World Wide Cemetery (www.cemetery.org) which both offer online webcast of services. And, here’s the most outrageous internet offering… there is a website called SeeMeRot.com that purports to offer a “coffin cam”. It seems it’s a hoax, but someone came up with the idea. And, with the way our society seems to focus on the macabre, it could happen. The new development though on the web, in addition to the webcast of services, is a service that offers a whole new creative way to deal with the departed.

According to an article in the Mar., ‘07, Utne magazine, our rituals for death reflect our discomfort and fear. According to Sandra M. Gilbert, in her book “Death’s Door: Modern Dying and the Ways We Grieve”, “funerals used to be about a body, a coffin and mourning, weeping and wailing. Today, we don’t encourage people to weep and wail. It seems that we feel guilty or uncomfortable dealing with grief — it’s embarrassing”. She goes on to say that our culture suffers from a general prohibition of grief.

So, how does the internet solve this problem? By offering grievers a service that creates websites that range from simple text messages for the dead to elaborate multi-media presentations. There are VirtualMemorials.com, AngelsOnLine.com and LifeRecorded.com. The interesting phenomenon that has developed from this service is intriguing many social scientists. With the Web’s unique facility of allowing unfiltered emotion and honesty, people’s inhibitions about grieving are loosened. So people unleash their torrents of tears online as opposed to their stiff, and stately demeanor demanded in the church pew. People now have a safe forum to unload their grief and anger, and it is serving as an important outlet for repressed emotions.

These websites also stand as memorials to the dead, often replacing the grave as a way to revisit the beloved departed. In this way the site stands as a communication device to the departed in which people can send ‘emails to the dead’ to complain or seek comfort. On one site, it was reported, that a young girl sends messages year after year to her murdered Aunt. The latest of which is “There is so much stuff going on right now, I wish you were here. You would know how to fix it”.

However, true to human nature, there is a downside. Some websites have had to resort to “screeners” to filter out messages about the beloved departed that range from petty insults to full-blown accusations including incest and other crimes. And then, there are the outpourings of grief from secret lovers who show up unexpectedly on the sites as well. All of this points to the basic needs of human beings to connect, confront, and confess — and, yes, to grieve — all in one place and all within the safety and sanctity of your own home. Hmmm…sounds convenient.

But the internet has even gone farther than this. There is an internet-based virtual world in which all forms of human interaction can take place. It has been around for a while now but perhaps you aren’t familiar with all it offers. It’s called Second Life. As per Wikipedia,

Second Life is sometimes referred to as a game, it does not have points, scores, winners or losers, levels, an end-strategy, or most of the other characteristics of games. Residents can visit this virtual world almost as if it were a real place. They explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and buy items (virtual property) and services from one another.

Second Life’s virtual currency is the Linden Dollar (Linden, or L$) and is exchangeable for US Dollars in a marketplace consisting of residents, Linden Lab and real life companies. Though the exchange rate fluctuates, as of February 2007 it is reasonably stable at around L$ 270 to one US dollar.

The popularity of this site is exploding with more than 3 million accounts registered with Second Life. There are even people on eBay who make a substantial living buying and selling highly prized virtual property in the game. Large retailers such as Gap and automobile manufacturers are competing for promotions of their products on the site in which residents can buy “cool” things. There are even digital design companies like Millions of Us who conjured up Scion City — a futuristic urban island with a dealership that sells Scions and a racetrack where consumers’ online personas can take them for virtual test drives.

Designing attractions to capture the attention of online residents is becoming big business as major corporations continue to establish marketing footholds in virtual worlds such as Second Life. Even AOL has come on board. They recently launched an interactive “Second Life” mall dubbed AOL Pointe, where visitors can buy clothes for their avators, rip it up in a skate park and gather in an amphitheater to watch videos together. Like many companies, AOL sees the site as the next step for the Web, as an Internet in 3-D. It has even been reported that in 5 years, the virtual world experience will be like stepping into a movie where you’re the star.

It is true that the internet has brought us interaction, connection and an outlet for honest communication that we have never experienced before. But is it healthy? Can the internet be a stand-in for our need for touch and physical interaction? What about that huge enveloping hug from Grandma at the grave site? Or just being held in someone’s arms? But, we just go on waiting for the next internet offering to continue to give us these kinds of human virtual and even 3-D interactions. I am only wondering — what will it look like? What will it offer? How will it make me feel less alone? Anyone out there care to guess?