Mourning rituals & Goodbyes in the indie web

[Corrupted Unicorn]

Bringing this topic back to bring up another kind of online grieving: Youtube comments. You can find the kind I'm talking about when looking for a song you like. Short, but emotional stories about what-could-have-beens with a past love, a parent or family member that is no longer here, or a rough upbringing with the hope for a brighter future...

I hope I don't sound weird when I say this, but reading these things make me realize how connected we are all through music, and how a single song can contain infinite stories, not just the one embedded within its lyrics.

I know it's not a stable platform. Comments get dragged down to the bottom where only the most restless bored people scroll. Videos and accounts can be taken down. But for a brief but meaningful moment, these loved ones from strangers live once again, becoming part of my memory.

With time, the details may be eroded away - but never that feel of connection with humanity.

[JetDungeonDragon]

Mourning is the reason why I have one of the on-and-off WIP pages on my site that I call Old Times- though I wouldn't call it mourning for traditional things. It's a kind of celebration/mourning of the past, my past, when time just aligned more with my closest friend group to get together and just spend like 8+ hours together at a time online, among other things of my past but mostly that. When I do get the right mood to work on the page, it typically ends up being a lot of work trying to dig up memories across what devices I have remaining.