According to MSNBC, more and more people under the age of 40 are expressing the desire to take certain things with them into the afterlife -- or at least into the ground when their time comes. That includes -- yes, it's true -- things such as BlackBerrys.Personally, I plan on being cremated after I die. I find something appealing about the cleansing, purifying power of fire. That, and the thought of worms wriggling through my earthly remains rather skeeves me out. My coffin will be a plain, pine box. I'll go in it wearing a suit. Nothing else will accompany me. Others, however, are all for including personal affects, such as cell phones.

MSNBC reports: "It seems that everyone under 40 who dies takes their cell phone with them," says Noelle Potvin, family service counselor for Hollywood Forever, a funeral home and cemetery in Hollywood, Calif. "It's a trend with BlackBerrys, too. We even had one guy who was buried with his Game Boy."

Others cited by MSNBC admit to burying loved ones with fully charged cell phones that they call to leave messages, even though the battery will eventually, er, die.

The idea of being buried with items gathered during life is nothing new. The practice has been around for thousands of years. Turns out the cell phone is simply the modern equivalent of the painted vase, golden jewelry, or silk robes.