NEW TECHNOLOGIES, NEW RITUALS: VIRTUAL CEMETERIES

Abstract

In this paper we propose to establish exploratory lines about how «the new information and communication technologies , specifically those related to Internet, present us new «ritualized» practices around the event of death. We observe the emergence of «profiles» on social networks, particularly Facebook, to express the sorrow at the death of a person or different expressions of affection and desire for improvement in the imminence of a tragic end (terminal illness, coma states), by friends, relatives or even strangers who feel the need to express their feelings about those facts. Much of current thinking about the funeral rites has stated the gradual loss of certain practices such as attending funerals or burials, visits to cemeteries. This would be connected to the place of the event of death take place in our society today, more and more invisible by the loss of certain rituals, unlike other times where the «mourning» was seen as essential to deal with sorrow. However, the appearance of these memorial profiles in Facebook show us another ways of remember dead people. The methodological proposal is to analyze the significance of the ritual of farewell to the dead on Facebook, using the semiotic approach to analyse «texts» such as commemorating profiles and interviews to Facebook users, as well as obituaries to establish different types of statement and the way they propose the farewell to the dead.