Visiting Assistant Professor of Communication Timothy Recuber recently gave a talk at the Media Sociology Pre-Conference of the American Sociological Association (ASA) Annual Meetings on Aug. 11.
In “Death, Digital Selfhood, and the Social Construction of Wisdom in Blogs of the Terminally Ill,” Recuber analyzed 677 posts on the blogs of 15 terminally ill authors. His goal was to understand the kinds of engagement with mortality that blogs afford their authors.
He argued that the blogs help authors demonstrated the wisdom they have gained, and as a result, help reconstruct the sense of self that is often threatened by a terminal illness.
