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Online memorials: the virtual as the new vernacular

Abstract This paper explores the significance of virtual space to the bereaved, as a site of remembrance and focus for mourning practices and expression of emotions. It is argued that in the countries of the developed north west, such as the UK, where a high proportion of the population are computer literate and are used to working with and communicating through virtual technology, such as social networking sites, the internet has been established as a normal place for remembering the dead. Remembrance is in part shaped by typical net practices and terminology, as well as by the technological possibilities of the internet, which, combined, accommodate ongoing uploading and editing of images, text, music and gifts. This gives these memorials a vibrant and dynamic contemporary character which is often expressed through colloquial idiom and popular culture, thereby representing and constituting aspects of the vernacular. Some social networking sites and more formal memorial hosts, such as commercial or charitable sites, place constraints on how online memorials are organised and what might be included, but the majority retain an emphasis on the deceased as an individual, and attempt to reflect their character, interests and relationships. The vernacular qualities of virtual memorials facilitate interaction with the memorials, which can constitute therapeutic environment for mourners through providing space for action, narrative work, meaning-making, expressions and negotiations of continuing bonds with the deceased, and virtual support networks.