Abstract
We are living in a digital era where ubiquitous social media are becoming part of the everyday lives of many. These social media platforms were designed for the living; however an estimated 8000 Facebook members die daily. It is therefore no surprise that the phenomena of how social media platforms are adopted to discuss death dying and grieving have become a growing area of research across numerous disciplines. Using qualitative methods, this article adds to and moves beyond existing research by focusing on the creation and inheritance of Facebook pages, thanablogs, posthumous chatbots, posthumous messages and posthumous avatars, to explore whether digital afterlives enabled by the Internet affect how people grieve. In order to examine how these messages and memories are experienced this study used in-depth qualitative interviews with participants from 3 distinct areas: Digital Creators (DC), Digital Inheritors (DI) and Service Providers (SP) the findings presented here explore three emerging themes (1) the link between comfort and control (2) the changing landscape of the uncanny valley and (3) the fear of ‘second loss’.
Highlights
Death is an undisputed reality of the human condition, and this emotionally laden topic has been researched and written about across many different disciplines
In 2007, following the Virginia Tech shootings where 32 people died on the university campus, Facebook decided to memorialise the accounts of the dead rather than switching them off, enabling relatives and friends to write messages of support on the Facebook pages of the deceased
In order to explore the nuanced and complex emotions surrounding death, dying and bereavement special consideration was given to the type of methods used: The aim of this study was to elicit rich and detailed descriptions of how messages and memories enabled by the Internet were being experienced by people in our digital society
Summary
Death is an undisputed reality of the human condition, and this emotionally laden topic has been researched and written about across many different disciplines. The Internet has spurred a relatively new and important area of research for thanatologists (those concerned with the study of death and the practises of associated with it). In order to explore the nuanced and complex emotions surrounding death, dying and bereavement special consideration was given to the type of methods used: The aim of this study was to elicit rich and detailed descriptions of how messages and memories enabled by the Internet were being experienced by people in our digital society. Curr Psychol (2021) 40:813–821 beyond existing research into human computer interaction I interviewed participants from 3 distinct areas: Digital Creators (DC), Digital Inheritors (DI) and Service Providers (SP). My research focuses on the creation and inheritance of Facebook pages, thanablogs, posthumous chatbots, posthumous avatars and posthumous messages and in this current paper I present the findings from the DI category of participants
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