You Don't De-Friend the Dead: An Analysis of Grief Communication by College Students Through Facebook Profiles

Natalie Pennington

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Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion

Abstract

This research examined how various members of a social network interact with the Facebook (FB) profile page of a friend who has died. From 43 in-depth qualitative interviews, FB friends of deceased FB users maintained their FB connection with the deceased. Most participants who visited the profile found it helpful to look at pictures; a few wrote messages to the deceased as a coping mechanism. In some instances, a spouse or parent controlled the profile, which respondents universally viewed as having a negative effect on their ability to cope with their loss.

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References

2014Constructing grounded theory 2007The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites 2008Handbook of Interpersonal Communication 2001Meaning reconstruction & the experience of loss.2010Logging On and Letting Out: Using Online Social Networks to Grieve and to Mourn 2001Relearning the world: Making and finding meanings.2009“What's the Problem?”

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2014New mourners, old mourners: online memorial culture as a chapter in the history of mourning 2018Do not Click “Like” When Somebody has Died: The Role of Norms for Mourning Practices in Social Media 2015Who Wants to Live Forever? Living, Dying and Grieving in Our Digital Society 2023Digital necromancy: users’ perceptions of digital afterlife and posthumous communication technologies 2016“Why are they commenting on his page?”: Using Facebook profile pages to continue connections with the deceased 2021Conceptualizing social media sub-platforms: The case of mourning and memorialization practices on Facebook

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