For the Funeral Too Distant, Mourners Gather on the Web

[jaxx]

In an age of commemorating birthdays, weddings and anniversaries on Facebook and Twitter, it was perhaps inevitable that live Web-streaming funerals for friends and loved ones would be next.

<..> But now the once-private funerals and memorials of less-noted citizens are also going online.

Several software companies have created easy-to-use programs to help funeral homes cater to bereaved families. FuneralOne a one-stop shop for online memorials that is based in St. Clair, Mich., has seen the number of funeral homes offering Webcasts increase to 1,053 in 2010, from 126 in 2008 (it also sells digital tribute DVDs).

<..> Traveling to funerals was once an important family rite, but with greater secularity and a mobile population increasingly disconnected from original hometowns, watching a funeral online can seem better than not going to a funeral at all. Social media, too, have redrawn the communal barriers of what is acceptable when relating to parents, siblings, friends and acquaintances.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/fashio...&emc=tha23

Kind of interesting, the web makes almost anything possible. I don't have a problem with the idea of funerals online.

[mstinamotorcity]

This was something I wanted to do for my brother in law who lost his only sister and couldn't travel to the funeral because of illness. This seemed like it would have been something that would have worked. especially if you can interact.

[Treestar]

Interesting. I think I'd still go to major ones, but that might actually increase the ones we could attend. The ones you would like to go to but for travel expense and time.