For the last two to three weeks, we have been discussing “haunted” media, as well as attempts to immortalize ourselves through technology. Since the creation of the phonograph and telephone, human beings have been consistently trying to communicate with the dead or preserve themselves after they die through the use of technology. We have thus far covered Edison’s spirit phone, voice recordings, photographs, and even modern and science fiction attempts to recreate ourselves through AI and robots on Black Mirror. However, there is a more innocuous and heartwarming yet still slightly creepy way in which people today are preserving and “communicating” with their loved ones: stuffed animals.
Yes, stuffed animals. Every now and then, I’ll happen across an article on my feed or timeline that shows a heartwarming video of someone listening to a loved one’s voice that has been installed in a Build-a-Bear. Usually, the people take a voice recording of a lost grandparent, parent, or child from a video or voicemail, and Build-a-Bear is able to install that recording on one of the voiceboxes for its stuffed animals.
While the results are usually quite touching, I do find the preservation of some of these deceased people using stuffed animals to fall into the realm of the eerie. Of course, everyone has their own mechanisms for coping with grief and loss, and surely a stuffed animal is one way for people to hold on to some cherished part of the person they lost.
Nevertheless, I wonder if the reliance on these stuffed animals may actually be preventing people from dealing with their grief and moving past it. Just as we recommend people stop following their ex-boyfriends or girlfriends for a while on social media after a rough breakup so as not to ruminate, so too might we advise someone who has lost a loved one not to rely too heavily on their Build-a-Bear replacement lest it becomes an emotional crutch and prevent them from dealing with their grief in a healthy manner.
I always think of the scenes from Breaking Bad where Jesse continues to call and listen to the voicemail of his deceased girlfriend as an example of how technology, while preserving the memories or voices of those we lost, can keep us from dealing with our sorrow in a healthy way.
Again, while we may continually try to immortalize ourselves or speak to those we have lost through various forms of media, we would do well to not let those efforts distract us from coping with our grief or living in the present.