ABSTRACT
The notion of “cheating death” summons visions of avoiding certain demise. “Cheating of death” is, though, ultimately seen as temporary in that all humans must one day die. However, as suggested in the first of the quotes above, online memorialization’s unique ability to link the living to deceased loved ones may facilitate at least a partial “cheating of death.” The second and third quotes suggest that products and their consumption – and memories thereof – can possibly be intimately involved in challenging the certainty of death. This possibility of “cheating death” has emerged from research on both a “New Model of Grief ” (Walter 1997, 1996) and online memorialization (Lim 2013; Walter et al. 2011-12). This research collectively suggests (1) that death has been decoupled into “physical” and “social” components, and (2) that “social immortality” – i.e., eternal life for the social self – may now be possible.
