Hirschfeld: Morbid Web site ‘collects’ friends
The listed deaths are almost all of "newsworthy" traits, but I wonder if the information really makes a difference.
By Matt Hirschfeld (Contact)
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
Having a Myspace means your life is an open book — even when you’re six feet under. Now, people can still look at the skeletons in your Myspace closet.
Mydeathspace.com is a Web site dedicated to collecting the Myspace sites of people who have died. It also links news stories and obituaries of the person’s death if it was newsworthy enough. The site’s purpose is for people to pay their respects by leaving notes in each site’s comments area.
Mike Patterson, the creator of the site, said in an interview with The New Tribune, that he started the site “to show that teens aren’t invincible and that the consequences for not using their heads don’t just affect themselves, but friends and family members as well.”
Teens aren’t the only people featured in the site, though. At a random viewing, there was a 39-year-old, a 49-year-old, a 34-year-old and countless others in their mid- to upper-thirties.
The deaths are almost all of “newsworthy” traits. Suicides, freak accidents and car accidents are a dime a dozen. I wonder if being morbidly fascinated about a stranger’s death is making a difference in the world.
A map of the U.S. is also on the site and shows the most recent deaths around the country. How convenient.
Thankfully, the Web site has proved there is still some humanity left in the world. Patterson receives 75 percent hate mail and 25 percent fan mail. I hope by the time the site suffers its own demise, hate mail is at least in the 90th percentile.
The site can be a tool for expressing words that weren’t expressed on the physical earth. The comments, though, can be filled with love or filled with hate. One comment from one user said, “Teen dies while trying to revive a cellphone … I just had to laugh out loud.”
Patterson says he is protected by the first amendment in his crusade of warning young adults. If Patterson is protected in expressing his opinion about displaying to the world certain people’s deaths, shouldn’t the user who posted the “Teen dies…” comment also be protected?
No, it was removed from the site. Not before, I’m sure, thousands of other visitors viewed the comment.
I guess it’s at Patterson’s discretion to decide what’s appropriate in the cyber world.
I’ll leave you with a comment that one user said about a man who died while taking part in a cupcake eating competition, “I shall cringe in advance for offending anyone. Millions of fat girls a year can do this, but one drunk man chokes and dies? How the hell? How dense were the cuppycakes? Thick icing? I mean come on, it’s cake. Even children on their first birthday can handle a huge mouthful. So sorry for the family though.”
The user said he did feel sorry for the family, but he also injected some humor into his comment.
Worth removal on the site? Check out mydeathspace.com and decide for yourself. And think about if you died in an accident, would you want to be compared to “millions of fat girls” by a stranger?
I didn’t think so.
Hirschfeld is a Augusta junior in journalism.
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