The Digital Departed

"""The Digital Departed asks a compelling question: what becomes of the digital self once we die? At a time when more than six million have died from the pandemic, this investigation explores the many ways of dying and grieving through mediated spaces. Recuber's exploration of death-related digital platforms is an exemplary work of digital sociology, which combines classical sociological theory with empirical work on a variety of technologies. Written in an accessible style, I look forward to using this book in my sociology classes.""-- ""Jessie Daniels, author of Nice White Ladies: The Truth about White Supremacy, Our Role in It, and How We Can Help Dismantle It"" ""The Digital Departed uses a diverse array of data -- from digital suicide notes to blogs maintained by the terminally ill - to uncover a compelling web of complex relationships among digital technologies, broad cultural shifts, and the most intimate of human experiences, death. At once peculiar and profound, it is a memorable read bound to leave readers doing some digital soul searching.""-- ""Sarah Sobieraj, author of Credible Threat: Attacks Against Women Online and the Future of Democracy"" ""Methodologically rigorous and theoretically rich, The Digital Departed offers the first comprehensive treatment of death and dying online through the voices of those who have passed. At times moving and always beautifully written, the book is at once a theory of self in the digital age and a focused statement on the nature of life, death, community, and society.""-- ""Jenny L. Davis, author of How Artifacts Afford: The Power and Politics of Everyday Things"" ""Timothy Recuber's The Digital Departed is an innovative and timely study of digital approaches to commemorating, coping with, and avoiding death. Tracking digital afterlives from the birth of what he calls the digital soul to the quest for virtual immortality, he concludes with cautionary notes about what he calls the limits of digital transcendencies. Recuber uses various instances of life-prolongation to address the key question: what becomes of the digital self when we die? The underlying desires to avoid death and remember lost loved ones often animate technological adoption and yet go unnamed and understudied in much of the research that makes up the emergent field of Critical Tech Studies. The book is highly readable and teachable. I plan to use it in my Sociology of Robots and AI course in years to come. Recuber's voice is accessible, and he manages to link seemingly disparate rituals and activities where the digital, ephemeral and algorithmic meet questions of power, selfhood and ontological frailty. Highly recommended.""-- ""Karla A. Erickson, author of How We Die Now: Intimacy and the Work of Dying"""