Continuing bonds in the age of social networking: Facebook as a modern-day medium

Abstract

As Facebook's popularity grows and endures, many profiles are becoming gravemarkers of the dead, scattered among the profiles of the living. The integration of Facebook usage into many people's everyday lives makes it unsurprising that ongoing interaction by the living with deceased persons' profiles is increasingly commonplace, but this is little studied. This research undertook qualitative document analysis of 943 posts on five 'in-memory-of' Facebook groups and an interpretative phenomenological analysis of three interviews with bereaved Facebook users. Four themes arose:(1) modes of address, (2) beliefs about communications, (3) experience of continuing bonds, and (4) nature and function of the Facebook community. The article has a threefold aim: (1) to contextualise the findings within a sociologically focused version of the continuing bonds theory of bereavement; (2) to argue that Facebook, as a modern-day 'medium', may supplant more traditional 'mediator deathworkers'; and (3) to enhance bereavement professionals' awareness and understanding of bereavement in an age increasingly marked by technologically mediated relationships, and to thus inform clinical practice.

Continuing social presence of the dead: exploring suicide bereavement through online memorialisation

“…Knowing that strangers [or friends] are visiting, that the counter is higher today than it was yesterday, that someone, somewhere is thinking about the lost [person], that perhaps someone has taken the trouble to write and offer words of comfort-all this is soothing in and of itself. (Finlay & Krueger, 2011, p. 40) And, as Kasket (2012) notes, Facebook enables mourning to take place in the same "space" as that occupied by the living, enabling interaction to continue "with the same co-constructed representation of self created during that person's life, rather than with a new, eulogised representation of the person created by someone else in a virtual cemetery" (p. 63). This, in part, may explain the resistance that some of the bereaved felt with regards to the option of having the "live" page of their loved one memorialised post-death.…”

“…In addition, for parents of the bereaved, Facebook enabled them to connect with those who they were otherwise not in touch with, such as friends of the deceased, and to find out about other aspects of their son or daughter's personality and lived experiences. As Kasket (2012) notes, Facebook is an ideal platform to enable this process of social integration to continue, overcoming the obstacles presented by increasing geographical distance between family members to enable new opportunities for "mediator deathworkers":…”

“…The authors pay particular attention to the blurring of private messages to the deceased with public displays of mourning, facilitated through the wider online arena, and found that online social networks provide a space for those who are otherwise marginalised by traditional outlets to grieve. Kasket (2012) undertook a document analysis of five "in memory of" Facebook groups and conducted interviews with three bereaved Facebook users in order to contextualise the continuing bonds theory of bereavement and to explore the value of online environments for "deathwork" and bereavement practice. These studies, however, whilst useful, are not specific to suicide bereavement.…”

The pervasive dead

“…The article is one of several (Cann, 2014b;Howarth, 2007;Maddrell, 2016;Mitchell, 2007;Petersson, 2010; Walter, Hourizi, Moncur, & Pitsillides, 2011-2012) that question sequestration theory by suggesting that twenty-first-century western societies are witnessing a new integration of the dead into everyday life. What distinguishes the present article is that it interrogates the empirical evidence for sequestration through a simple but key insight from anthropologist Robert Hertz (1907Hertz ( /1960.…”

“…These different facets of death, however, are almost as broad as life itself, so key distinctions can easily get lost. This article focuses on the post-death period and the dead -specifically the ordinary dead encountered by British mourners, their families and friends, not the spectacular death represented in mass media that is 'at a safe distance, but hardly ever experienced upfront' (Jacobsen, 2016).The article is one of several (Cann, 2014b;Howarth, 2007;Maddrell, 2016;Mitchell, 2007;Petersson, 2010; Walter, Hourizi, Moncur, & Pitsillides, 2011-2012) that question sequestration theory by suggesting that twenty-first-century western societies are witnessing a new integration of the dead into everyday life. What distinguishes the present article is that it interrogates the empirical evidence for sequestration through a simple but key insight from anthropologist Robert Hertz (1907Hertz ( /1960.…”