You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
Internet cemeteries. Cyber funerals. On-line memorials.
Huh?
i-tomb.net is to death what facebook is to cyber stalking. Its a chance to visit Aunt Mildred in the afterlife and it’s a chance for aunt Mildred to Tweet you from the great beyond, for a fee.
Instead of burying uncle Burl, now you can double click and just rest his soul on line.
Somewhere around the planet techno-geeks are applauding, digging cyber dirt.
It’s a new idea, for people who spend their every waking moment on the internet. Well now they can spend every dying moment there as well.
It’s like Farmville, only for dead people.
It’s the brain child of virtual entrepreneurs who figure people will pay $50 a year for a cyber cemetery that offers virtual tombs, crypts and grave markers.
www. Rest in Peace!
Think this is a joke?
This ain’t no joke. This is the next big thing and all of us will be kicking ourselves in the head asking why we didn’t think of a cyber place to mourn.
How serious is this idea? According to the New York Post, the ownership group has already raised $2 million from investors.
Apparently there’s profit margin in mourning on line.
Jacques Mechelany, who heads up a group known as I-Postmortem, is hoping that people will soon be dying to sign up.
According to published reports: Mechelany is running two sites, one called i-Tomb.net. For the $50 fee, a user can set up his own tomb, or that of a loved one. With a click of a mouse, those who are left behind can visit the tomb, add digital flowers or candles, personal messages and streaming videos or photos memorializing the deceased.
A related site — i-Memorial.com — costs $120 a year and automatically sends computer messages to friends and relatives of those who have just moved to the Great Beyond.
Subscribers can also use it to store wills and instructions about their funerals.
“Hello. This is Aunt Gertrude. I hate bacon and the color pink. Now put my urn over the TV and set the dial to wheel of fortune.”
If it sounds creepy, it also sounds pretty astute considering some 54 million people will die around the world this year.
Your loss is i-tomb’s gain.
“We have an ability to leave traces of our lives not only for our children, but for our grandchildren’s grandchildren,” he said.
That may be true, but I think I’ll take a grave marker and some dirt if you don’t mind. When it comes to death, I’m still Old School.
And that is crazy.