Death on Facebook

On Facebook, the 'real-life' death of a user brings mourners and curious people alike to the recently deceased person's profile page. The news of a person's death spreads quickly among social networking sites, especially with the ability to post statuses and scroll through newsfeed. With the emergence of social networking sites, the process of mourning and remembering the deceased has greatly evolved.

Before the existence of the internet, it probably would have taken many days for news like this to spread. But with social networking sites like Facebook, it can take only a few days before a deceased person's profile page is transformed into an obituary page. People leave messages on the profile page wall, set up memorial groups, and post photos among other things. But when Facebook learns of a death, it removes any record of the deceased user on the site after a month. This article shows an example of this; how a person's death is now dealt with differently from people who had weak ties with them. Online social networks bring together diverse mourners connected by one person. However, unfortunately at the same time Facebook has also become a place where reporters go to get detailed information on the recently deceased.