RELIGST 2M03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Thanatology, Clinical Death, The Final Destination

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELIGST 2M03
• Professor: adel

Document Summary

Thanatechnology: study of death, using technology like internet. (thanatology: the study of death and dying) Death in media: video games, tv shows, movies, news reporting, children cartoons (at least 1/3 tv shows have the scenes of death) The internet can be used to find social support in times of upheaval due to death. Online support groups; the survivors of suiside, widows, the loss of a child, and for people grieving over the death of a pet. New technologies eliminate awkward physical interactions in funerals. (drive- through funerals) Facebook -> virtual congregational space -> condolences, social support. Reduced sense of social isolation for the dying and their loved ones. Death increasingly becomes public affair in facebook. Facebook is used to memorialize the lives of people who have died. Facebook would become the largest digital public graveyard! Rip and changing profile pictures, and making memorial facebook pages: modern trend for grieving.