Open access
DEATH – „ I LIKE IT”
Bogdan ZELER1
Cultural and Literary Transformations
Publication language: Polish
Journal article
Transformations No. 1-2 (84-85) 2015, Publication date: 5 May 2015
Keywords: death, fascination with death, deconstruction of death
Abstract The paper will present reflections about the phenomena that we observe in a network environment, especially on portals: peculiar fascination with death. Good news, arousing readers' interest is focused on their interest, as well Internet users. The network is also a place where we can find an authentic experience of the death certificate (blogs of people experiencing the death of relatives, or even dying). This constant communion with death caused that it is no longer a subject of serious reflection. It became tamed subject and reflection on it became trivial. Death entered the world of pop culture, has lost its character, became the object of the game: movies about death, music videos, commercials, computer games about killing and most important multiply death of characters that we materialize during game, made death an unimportant episode. Issues of our interest, acquire a special dimension in the context of the emergence of new new media, to use the term proposed by Paul Levinson. These developments by other investigators are called social media, Web 2.0, sometimes also referred to as art shielded. All these terms refer to a new way to participate in culture, which in contrast to the culture of "new media", is not the consumption of artifacts (books, films, exhibitions, etc.), but assumes an active role in the creative process. Levinson notes that the new new media are social. Examples of such behaviors characteristic of online communities is found in the work of commenting on blogs, creating Wikipedia, exchanging courts on Facebook, creating avatars in Second Life, etc.. What show us the Facebook death image? It seems that the death of the social network appears in several contexts. First is the realization of post-modern tendency to deconstruct death, the second is located in the discourse about the death characteristic of pop culture, thirdly marketing functions - death attracts attention, so it can serve "sale" of certain values and ideologies, but also specific products. Special attention and separate discussion deserves closed social groups called Death. Because of their hermetic nature it is very difficult task and sometimes impossible. Yet we know that they bring together people particularly fascinated by death, and sometimes even dangerous (suicide, terrorist) and are located on the black side of the Internet. Zygmunt Bauman analyzing attitudes towards death, stated that there are strategies, "that make life with the awareness of the inevitab
Zakład Komunikacji Kulturowej, Instytut Nauk o Kulturze i Studiów Interdyscyplinarnych, Uniwersytet Śląski w Katowicach
E-mail: bogdanzeler@gazeta.pl