Forget thinking about staying connected in your Social Media Life or even your “Second Life” ~ what about your After Life??
Dozens of new companies are offering services such as virtual cemeteries where guests can visit and e-mail alerts set up by funeral homes to remind relatives of the anniversary of a loved one’s death.
Some companies even offer to e-mail your estranged relatives when your time draws near.. in hopes of a reconciliation before you make it to the Pearly Gates.
This all sounds pretty morbid to me ~ but the popularity of the services show a growing generation of funeral customers who refuse to let death have the last word.
Baby boomers along with the X, Y and Me generation are knee deep in social media.. so why shouldn’t they take their social life to the next life??
John McQueen, owner of the Anderson McQueen funeral home, says "People have a desire to perpetuate not only for themselves, but for their loved ones, the story of their lives, and technology has all these new great ways of doing that."
Technology now means a funeral merely begins a new virtual afterlife. And entrepreneurial companies are right there to make that happen.
Los Angeles-based EternalSpace.com launched its Web site in March, offering a variety of virtual scenic locations online for a person's final resting place: A "Zen Garden," a "Lake View," a "Tropical Valley" and other options.
Sold directly through funeral homes, the service allows a person or relatives to establish a pastoral grave site and add digital amenities such as the image of a park bench or mausoleum.
Once there, visitors can purchase items to leave behind, such as flowers, religious icons and other trinkets symbolically important to the deceased, such as golf clubs, a horse saddle, a piano or trees that can grow over time. Prices for each range from $5 to $35 apiece.
If these afterlife entrepreneurs have anything to do with it.. there's no reason to stop interacting online simply because you're six feet under.
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