My DeathSpace
I am not even kidding with the headline. There really is a website called "MyDeathSpace.com, which features MySpacers who have passed away.
The Chicago Sun Times tells the story this way: "MyDeathSpace is the creation of Mike Patterson, a 26-year-old San Francisco paralegal who holds a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA. Patterson claims he created the site to teach teens a “lesson” about risky behaviors, especially when it comes to driving automobiles.
An early incarnation of the site attracted between 3,000 and 4,000 users over the course of its four-month life cycle. If Patterson’s motivations were altruistic, he revealed them in peculiar ways — site graphics included a melodramatic photo of a middle-aged man being strangled; a tag line read “Myspace Deaths! We need to cut back anyway.” Bringing his active readership along with him, Patterson launched My-DeathSpace in January 2006.
Today, MyDeathSpace claims more than 8,000 registered users. Registration allows members to receive notification of new deaths by e-mail, chat electronically with others, and most important, post on the discussion boards. Others sign up to become premium members, which grants them access to new deaths 24 hours before they become publicly available, as well as “no ads or popups while browsing the forum.” What began as a platform for virtual rubbernecking took on new significance after the massacre at Virginia Tech University. The tragedy offered a glimpse of a new meta-reality: 17 of the victims had MySpace profiles, which mainstream press
outlets eagerly scoured for information."
A macabre little touch is the navigation system: dead MySpacers are shown on a map as little black rectangles topped by a cartoonish-skull. Rolling over the icon yields a photo, name and age. Clicking on it shows you the cause of death and enables you to read an article detailing that death.
The death icons can be found as far away as Australia, though the majority for now are clustered in the United States.
Here's Michele Ring, for example, Army Spc, killed in Iraq. From her MyDeathSpace page, you can click on a link to her MySpace page, read her final words, see the last photos she posted, and get a glimpse of this young woman's life.
Like a virtual cemetary, friends and relatives stop by and post goodbyes and memorials on the MySpace page, leaving digital tributes to their departed loved one. Once you get past the newness, it's really no more strange than taking a bunch of flowers and sitting by the gravesite of someone you miss. It may even be, in a strange way, more personal. But it does take some getting used to.
I am not even kidding with the headline. There really is a website called "MyDeathSpace.com, which features MySpacers who have passed away.
The Chicago Sun Times tells the story this way: "MyDeathSpace is the creation of Mike Patterson, a 26-year-old San Francisco paralegal who holds a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA. Patterson claims he created the site to teach teens a “lesson” about risky behaviors, especially when it comes to driving automobiles.
An early incarnation of the site attracted between 3,000 and 4,000 users over the course of its four-month life cycle. If Patterson’s motivations were altruistic, he revealed them in peculiar ways — site graphics included a melodramatic photo of a middle-aged man being strangled; a tag line read “Myspace Deaths! We need to cut back anyway.” Bringing his active readership along with him, Patterson launched My-DeathSpace in January 2006.
Today, MyDeathSpace claims more than 8,000 registered users. Registration allows members to receive notification of new deaths by e-mail, chat electronically with others, and most important, post on the discussion boards. Others sign up to become premium members, which grants them access to new deaths 24 hours before they become publicly available, as well as “no ads or popups while browsing the forum.” What began as a platform for virtual rubbernecking took on new significance after the massacre at Virginia Tech University. The tragedy offered a glimpse of a new meta-reality: 17 of the victims had MySpace profiles, which mainstream press
outlets eagerly scoured for information."
A macabre little touch is the navigation system: dead MySpacers are shown on a map as little black rectangles topped by a cartoonish-skull. Rolling over the icon yields a photo, name and age. Clicking on it shows you the cause of death and enables you to read an article detailing that death.The death icons can be found as far away as Australia, though the majority for now are clustered in the United States.
Here's Michele Ring, for example, Army Spc, killed in Iraq. From her MyDeathSpace page, you can click on a link to her MySpace page, read her final words, see the last photos she posted, and get a glimpse of this young woman's life.
Like a virtual cemetary, friends and relatives stop by and post goodbyes and memorials on the MySpace page, leaving digital tributes to their departed loved one. Once you get past the newness, it's really no more strange than taking a bunch of flowers and sitting by the gravesite of someone you miss. It may even be, in a strange way, more personal. But it does take some getting used to.
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