The digital self
Social media has transformed the way we build and project our identity to ourselves and to others. It has also transformed the way we experience death and say goodbye to our deceased loved ones. ETERNAL LIFE depicts and delves into identity expressions of faith that are exhibited through a digital platform —a social network, to be more specific— the moment we die. Faith's multiple dimensions and its different forms of expression, the need for external validation, the interest in everyday life stories, and personal exploration through writing; these are some of the traits that define a believer's DIGITAL SELF. This is because the time of death is the great moment when we question about the afterlife, and where a Christian's being or non-being is defined.
This death pedagogy attempts to support or prepare ourselves for death not only as an end to our bodies' life, but also as a farewell. Faith’s pedagogy is also an instructing and encouraging way to pray and keep our loved ones present in the afterlife. Because this belief in the afterlife goes hand in hand with faith in Resurrection.
Through social media, digital reality is seen as a connection between public and private, real and virtual worlds, reason and faith, as well as intimacy, in order to explore the concepts of faith, intimacy, privacy, authenticity, solidarity and commitment, contacts and friendship. In short: digital identity, personality and faith. Subjectivity and contemporary technicality offer great possibilities for individual and collective expansion, as well as new forms of experience and cultural expression of faith and mourning at the time of death.
El MEMORIAL VIDA ETERNA presents the personal digital story of a deceased person as a tool through which the bereaved person reflects on their personal identity (Self) and shares it with their relatives and friends. This process of self-reflection is based on two stages: the development of the story by the person who has suffered the loss of a loved one, and the delivery of that story to their family and friends, who offer their support at this difficult time, both individually and collectively.
The story making process implies the structuring of the “Self” around a narrative identity; it is stated that receiving someone else's digital story is an experience that allows the believer or non-believer to reorganise their mindset and experience emotions in a vicarious way, to help them mourn a loved one, and to discover or rediscover faith. But most importantly, to question themselves about the afterlife.
Mourning can fit in a tweet, a message, a few words, a digital offering given to a deceased loved one and their family and friends. Our digital self offers a cry in memory of the deceased. In this way alone, through faith, mourning culture becomes a balm to overcome the moral elements of today's modern times. Any word, any act of compassion towards grief can be considered an act of faith in the afterlife. The Internet enables and allows searching and living the power of the immaterial, experiencing faith in the afterlife, the expression of faith in God and an ETERNAL LIFE.
ETERNAL LIFE is a 21st century expression of solidarity facing grief for the loss of a loved one, a solidarity over isolation, individualism and experiencing grief in solitude. We Christians know whom we can entrust our deceased to, because we have a Father who welcomes them, and who welcomes us. This is the greatness, the moral strength and the great fortune of faith.
Modern tragedy is based on sporadic pain, short-term mourning. In contrast, faith in Resurrection is based on the eternity of the deceased's soul. We are called to happiness on this earth, but we are also called to live eternity. Believers and non-believers are called to share and live their loved ones' eternity with our remembrance and our prayers, as well as with our offerings.
Shared pain equals less pain. Shared faith multiplies. Relatives and friends creating a digital story of a deceased loved one helps to overcome the limits of time and space that death represents, to make present and remember here and now, perhaps at any time or forever, that loved one who is gone. Mourning in privacy, but also among those people who loved and were loved by their deceased. That is the purpose of this memorial.
Death is a great certainty silenced by our society. But it is the vital moment in life when the question of the afterlife, of eternity, arises. Our digital self posts a cry regarding the day's obituary so that the deceased can be remembered and remain within the Internet's immortality. It is hard to die with no religion, but even harder to keep vigil without it.
We are actually giving a ‘like’ to a dead being. Yes, yes, I like it. Like, like, like. ‘Life is not what should be, life is what it is’, said Krishnamurti. Nobody told us that one day we would need new rituals to say goodbye to our loved ones to protect us from the void, so we don't fall into filling our emptiness. To endure our fear of human silence; the pain we feel when a loved one is gone.
The metaverse and virtual reality aim to create an alternative virtual world where lives can go on freely, including faith. Where virtual mourning is an opportunity to live and experience faith in Resurrection. An opportunity to find faith by questioning the afterlife. Against digital erasure in both private and public spheres; against oblivion, isolation and loneliness, ETERNAL LIFE offers to experience faith in the eternity of those we have loved and who loved us. This is the meaning of Christian life and faith in Resurrection.
