Ghosts in the Machine: Do the Dead Live on in Facebook?

Stokes, Patrick

doi:10.1007/s13347-011-0050-7

Cited by 37 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Mitchell et al (2012) explain this phenomenon as a result of the unique affordances of online technologies, in which the deceased may appear almost as if still alive, and they do subsequently warn against over usage of online memorials. Similarly, Stokes (2012) uses Floridian (2013 ethics to show that such data deserves to be treated as a moral patient in itself.…”

Section: Social Media Users As Micro Celebritiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In doing so, they merely account for the role of technology and have thus left economics and ethics relatively unexplored. At the same time, purely ethical viewpoints (Stokes 2012;Wright 2014), although enlightening, often fail to situate the matter within a larger economic and political context. As a result, current research on digital afterlife tends to neglect the fact that the online presence of the dead is generally mediated by commercial platforms.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Political Economy of Death in the Age of Information: A Critical Approach to the Digital Afterlife Industry

Öhman

Floridi

2017

Minds & Machines

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Online technologies enable vast amounts of data to outlive their producers online, thereby giving rise to a new, digital form of afterlife presence. Although researchers have begun investigating the nature of such presence, academic literature has until now failed to acknowledge the role of commercial interests in shaping it. The goal of this paper is to analyse what those interests are and what ethical consequences they may have. This goal is pursued in three steps. First, we introduce the concept of the Digital Afterlife Industry (DAI), and define it as an object of study. Second, we identify the politico-economic interests of the DAI. For this purpose, we develop an analytical approach based on an informational interpretation of Marxian economics. Third, we explain the practical manifestations of the interests using four real life cases. The findings expose the incentives of the DAI to alter what is referred to as the ''informational bodies'' of the dead, which in turn is to be seen as a violation of the principle of human dignity. To prevent such consequences, we argue that the ethical conventions that guide trade with remains of organic bodies may serve as a good model for future regulation of DAI.

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Section: Social Media Users As Micro Celebritiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Economy of Death in the Age of Information: A Critical Approach to the Digital Afterlife Industry

Öhman

Floridi

2017

Minds & Machines

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“…The process by which people from various social contexts such as school, work, and the family are all collapsed into the equal context of "friends" and where the social distances between various connections are lost is called "context collapse" (Marwick & Ellison, 2012; Vitak, Lampe, Gray, & Ellision, 2012). As a result, communal reaction has also become a bit more clichéd and aggregative, where people rely on trite posts such as "Sorry for your loss" or "Rest in peace" (Robinson, 1998 Stokes, 2012) it is unclear how these posts are perceived by others, especially the nongrieving "friends" one has on Facebook. Brandtzaeg, Lüders, and Skjetne, (2010) find that people socially reject others who they felt were sharing information that was too private or personally tragic.…”

Section: Grief In the Internet Agementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The more important the people in the interaction are to each other, the stronger the influence of their symbolic reaction to each other (Blumer, 1969;Erikson, 1968;James et al, 2010). With regards to expressions of grief on Facebook, most studies focus on the motivation or potential benefits of these posts on those grieving (Mitchell et al, 2012;Stokes, 2012). Little research exists regarding non-grieving Facebook "friends'" reactions to these grief postings, especially when they are in a more public venue such as wall posts as opposed to web memorials.…”

Section: Symbolic Interactionism Grief Socialization and Facebookmentioning

confidence: 99%

"I Would Not Do It:" Student Reaction to Facebook Wall Grief Posts

Wolfer¹

2015

SST

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Like most emotions, how and when to express grief is socially constructed; and, as such, can change over time. Social media sites like Facebook may be changing the cultural norms surrounding grief expression by making it more public and prolonged. However, little is known about how non-grieving Facebook "friends" perceive expressions of grief in locations such as general Facebook wall posts. This paper stems from a broader focus study exploring where college students "draw the line" and what they consider being inappropriate posts on Facebook. In five of seven focus groups conducted, students (n=32) mentioned some aspect of grieving on Facebook walls as inappropriate. Using open coding and a constant comparative methodology, findings from these five focus groups suggests that these college students exhibit "tolerated inappropriateness" regarding grief expressions on Facebook walls. Tolerated inappropriateness is the label for when students claim that Facebook is not where they would express grief (inappropriateness), but they also claim that they would not negatively judge those who do (tolerated). However, this "tolerated inappropriateness" only applies when posts did not exhibit "display drama," using excessively dramatic wording, or "display excessiveness", were highly repetitive. Both types of posts were seen as a call for attention among the living and were looked upon negatively. However, when confronted with these posts, students overwhelmingly ignore them, while still making negative judgments about the post or person. Using symbolic interactionist theory, implications of the lack of reaction for emerging norms of grief expression are explored.

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“…For a performance to be believed by the audience, the performance must be coherent or continuous (Goffman 1969, 22). The audience of a nonymous social media site, such as Facebook, can point out irregularities in a user"s performance, as most online connections know the user offline as well (Stokes 2011,13, Donath & Boyd 2004.…”

Section: Identity On Facebook: Creating Back and Front Stagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of memes in the construction of Facebook personae

Preez

Lombard

2014

Communicatio

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This research is based on the assumption that social media sites -such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube -have changed the way in which memes (culturally transmitted ideas) are transmitted or spread. It is argued that social media have provided the most fertile environment for the replication of memes to date. The social networking site Facebook is the main social media example used throughout the research. The way in which Facebook is represented in film, as well as the ways in which the offline lives of the characters are affected by their social media profiles, specifically as depicted in the film Catfish (Joost and Schulman 2010) are analysed. Lastly, it is argued that one can construct an entirely new persona, or merely experiment with different aspects of who you are, on social media sites. This online persona can be influenced by the memes one chooses to spread online. Naturally, all memes carry connotations, values and judgements. These memes collate with one"s profile and, thus, the connotations attached to the memes one shares are then associated with one"s online persona/profile. It is found that although a social networking user tries to portray him/herself in an idealised manner, these memetic connotations give a true impression of his/her offline persona. As a result, there is not much difference between the user"s online and offline personae.

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Ghosts in the Machine: Do the Dead Live on in Facebook?

Cited by 37 publications

References 24 publications

The Political Economy of Death in the Age of Information: A Critical Approach to the Digital Afterlife Industry

The Political Economy of Death in the Age of Information: A Critical Approach to the Digital Afterlife Industry

"I Would Not Do It:" Student Reaction to Facebook Wall Grief Posts

The role of memes in the construction of Facebook personae

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