Funeral directors in Quebec are discussing how to educate people that taking selfies over a corpse and posting it to social media may be considered disrespectful in some families.
The president of the corporation of funeral directors of Quebec, Denis Desrochers, said the act of taking photos at a funeral isn’t new, but sharing those photos on social media is.
“In many funeral parlours we have very clear rules around limiting selfies. Or we tell the public that the families don’t want selfies,” he said.
Despite their best efforts, people with mobile phones hide them until the last minute then strike a pose next to the coffin, Desrochers said. Those photos then end up on social media.
The fad of posting it on social media, however, can be detrimental to the family and the dignity of their late loved one, he said.
ht/ rob e.
Selfies at Funerals:
Why People Freak Out when Technology Mixes with Death? Photography has a long standing relationship with funerals. The camera phone is only the most recent example of a technology we humans use to capture images at funerals.
It seems that the people criticising the kids just don’t like the technology involved, i.e., the camera phone that produced the self-taken image.
This humongous metablog explores the concept of selfies with Jennifer Lawrence
http://goodstuffsworld.blogspot.com/2013/12/goodstuffs-blogging-magazine-121th-issue.html
When you seriously wanna prove you are a dipshit retard?
Duck lippin’ with the dead.
Yep…
http://tinyurl.com/j4fsnq4
“Bring out your dead.” This is sick and stupid and needs a Monty Python reference. The other question is why?
The word “despicable” comes to mind.
You cannot “educate” the kind of animal who would take a selfie with a corpse man.
Reminds me of a line from Weird Al’s “Tacky” (a parody of Pharrell Williams’ “Happy”):
“I would live-tweet a funeral, take selfies with the deceased.”
Never crossed my mind nor do I understand why anyone would do this.
I prefer the physical photos, videos and mental images of those who have passed when they were alive, loving and active. Sweet Memories.
Those are the images of life in my memory that remind me of their life struggles, successes, love of family, friends and faith.
Celebrate the life of others who have passed. In a small degree immortalize their life through past photos and videos of an active life to be passed on to be remembered by a generation or two before their life and existence is swept through the memory hole of time as a footnote in our brief human existence.
Chronical the chapters of their life, not their final act in life.
When my mother-in-law died in 1980, my husband and I were tasked with cleaning out her over 125+ year-old home, that her family had built and many generations inhabited.
One of the most bizarre things I found were many pictures of deceased relatives going back probably to the beginning, in their open coffins, and laying IN the living room for viewing, I guess.
It spooked me enough, to bring to mind how much the environs of Blandburg, PA reminded me of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD!!!
A sure cure to stop selfies: closed casket. It has always been beyond my thinking to have people ‘viewing’ a dead body! It just feels disrespectful and weird.
I also couldn’t get the banquet after the funeral. One of the saddest times of my life and we’re having, what seemed to be, a party.
I know much of the rituals and rites of passage have long, generational ties, but somethings I have never been able to reconcile. Oh well, guess it is my military dependent, always on the move handicap.
Eleanor sold selfies with me in the Capitol Rotunda for $100 each. She said it was to help fund formation of the United Nations. See how well that went? 👿
This is another non-issue … the dead haven’t complained.
And there’s something weird about wanting pictures of one’s self, regardless.
Narcissism … seems very similar to homosexual-ism, doesn’t it?
Maybe I’m just getting old and cranky, but it appears that more people are ego-centric than in days past. From a President doing a retarded video of himself taking “selfies” in the White Hut to “See Me” commercials on the TV about something (which I turn off as soon as I recognize it) I cannot fathom.
A whole world of: “Hey! Look at ME! I’m a dummy! I’m a moron! And it don’t matter, cuz you’re a dummy and a moron for looking! We’re dummies and morons living in a dumb, moronic Universe!”
izlamo delenda est …
Its likely posing with a trophy buck, in da hood.
@Mighty Mojo – I think the post funeral dinner was because many people likely had to travel quite a ways, and would have long return trips home, so they ate after the funeral. That and it was also a hospitality thing. A must do.
The taking of photos of the deceased – been going on since photography was born really. I think it was dying out – pardon – as people feel it is creepy, but the cell phone has made it fashionable again it seems. My husband is one of the type who takes pictures at family funerals. NOT selfies though. Now, I don’t care about a photo of a closed coffin covered in flowers, but a photo of the deceased … *shudder*.
Postmortem photography happened back in the day, because getting your picture taken was rare. Today, people will take a picture of a hot dog and corn chips for a social media update.
Corpses were popular in 19th century photography because they stayed still for the long exposure times required. Perfect for battlefield photography.