Creating and visiting Web memorials represent new opportunities for post-death ritual. A content analysis was conducted on a sample of 244 of the memorials found on the largest Web Cemetery: Virtual Memorial Gardens (catless.ncl.ac.uk/Obituary/memorial.html). Analyses revealed that memorials were written, in descending order of prevalence, by children (33%), friends (15%), grandchildren (11%), parents (10%), siblings (8%), spouses (4%), and various other family members. This pattern favoring younger authors may reflect the newness of this venue and facility with computer technology. The content of such memorials often contained reference to missing the deceased, rarely spoke of the cause of death, or made mention of God or religion. Memorials were more likely to be written to the deceased (e.g., in the form of a letter) rather than about or for the deceased (e.g., eulogy/obituary or tribute). Parents, family groups, and other relatives more frequently made religious references in their memorials than did other authors. In addition to the Web as a novel, untapped data source, these memorials offer intriguing opportunities for theoretical refinement (i.e., the ongoing connection between the bereaved and the deceased).

The 2005 London bombings is both marked by and is a marker of a post-scarcity memorial-media boom. There is a new contagion of the past driven by a memorial culture unstoppably equipped with the availability, portability and pervasiveness of digital devices, enabling the instant aggregation and archiving of everything. The ‘digital’, it can be said, insinuates itself in the past. In such circumstances, what are the prospects for the development and maintenance of individual memories? And, how can we consider such questions beyond the traditional dichotomous models of memory that assume memory as an orientation to something once complete and residual, and thus always already partial and in decline?

Rheingold (1993) and others have described the potential for increased connectedness and community in cyberspace, but critics have charged that the Web increases social isolation rather than fostering interpersonal relationships. The present article explores how creating and visiting Web memorials (activities that initially appear isolating) affect the bereaved. Data from three studies on Web memorialization (descriptions of Web memorials, guestbook entries, and a survey of Web memorial authors) are used to examine three aspects of bereavement community: continuing bonds with the dead, strengthening existing relationships among the living, and creating new communities of the bereaved in cyberspace. Analysis suggests that rather than serving as a poor substitute for traditional bereavement activities, Web memorialization is a valued addition, allowing the bereaved to enhance their relationship with the dead and to increase and deepen their connections with others who have suffered a loss.

Theories of bereavement continue to change and develop. This literature review explores the history of Western bereavement theories, beginning with Freud’s grief work, moving to the stage theories, and concluding with current constructivist thought of making meaning and continuing bonds with the deceased. Special consideration is given to gender and multicultural aspects of grief and loss. The review concludes with a discussion of the role of couple and family counselors.

Where do mobile, individualistic members of modern Britain spontaneously congregate, eg, for public mourning, and what does this tell us about the construction of solidarity and a sense of society? Where flowers were laid and books of condolence provided after the death of Princess Diana in 1997 provides a case study. A survey of 147 cities, towns and villages found that churches were important in cities and villages, but elsewhere, town halls, war memorials, shops and public buildings provided the magnets to bring people together. The role of war memorials and supermarkets is then examined in an analysis of the 1995 revival of the 11th November silence for the war dead. This indicates a) the payoff for companies in showing that they care, b) the importance of practical logistics of space and time. In a plural and secular society, ritual ‘words against death’ become ‘silences against death'. These congregations of contemporary nomads may not be full-blown Durkheimian rites, but they are a representation of existing society at the same time as representing popular hope for a better society.