"All of us are going to live forever, right? We're indestructible! Tomorrow's guaranteed! There's no reason to sweat the infinite silence that could creep up on us at anytime - that kind of thought is for the paranoid!"

At first glance, the seemingly naive notions in the thoughts above sound as if they're coming from some sorta delusional ditz. But ya know what? Thanks to the time-capsule that is the Internet, there's actually some truth embedded in the idea that all of us can be invincible - well, at least, digitally invincible.

Have you ever lost a loved one who was a dedicated Facebooker or MySpacer? It's likely that while they were alive, you would follow every one of their digital days to find out what they've been up to. Why? Because it was fun; it was engaging; you felt closer to them, even though many miles often separated the two of you.

But then they died. Suddenly, their real-time status updates were gone; new blog posts were gone; the fresh-faced pictures that reminded you they were still alive were gone...

Never again would your relationship with your loved one be the same as it was before.

But even though that relationship felt different didn't mean you had lost it forever. After all, their spirit was still full of life. And with the right mindset, you could always figure out new ways to imagine the presence of their personality, even in their death.

"Hmm... how can I bond with my bud, today? Yesterday, I hung out with some friends at the bar we used to have so much fun at. The day before, I worked out to that dumb ass song he/she wouldn't stop playing two years ago at the beach. But what can I do to bring the flame back, today?"

Suddenly, you hear a ding on your computer notifying you that you've just received an message from your friend's Facebook account!

You open it up, somewhat disappointed, to find that it was your friend's mother who was sending the message...

"I've been tinkering around with the idea of deleting their Facebook account. I can't imagine there being any need for it to still be active. What do you think I should do?"

Immediately, you reply back, as quickly as you can, in an effort to hopefully catch her before she unnecessarily murders the only remaining connection you have to your best friend's long lost life...

"Don't do it! That profile has never before been as meaningful as it is today! I, along with all of their friends and family, would like to forever be able to visit their page! It's one the of the last physical reminders of how things used to be!"

Their mother agrees. The profile stays.  Energy of your relationship remains and can be revisited forever more.

Your friend's virtual life never dies, and neither does anyone else's...

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Coming soon, on The Virtual Biographer's Blog...

Your virtual life never dies thanks to each of your digital days being documented in pixels and bytes. But some don't like the idea of their death bringing an abrupt ending to their Internet identity. They want the final chapter of their Virtual Biography™ to both serve as closure to the end of an amazing life, as well as a new beginning to an afterlife that can engage their friends and family beyond their passing.  In the next webisode, I'll show you how.

Links of interest...

MyDeathSpace.com - My Death Space publishes stories about how people died and then link to their personal MySpace page where, via the energy of the profile, you can clearly recognize the moment their life came to an end. Some profiles are sweet remembrances of a life loved and lost, where as others are full of anger over the recent tragedy. The whole site is just SO surreal.