Running head: Facebook: Giving Deceased Users Immortality

Facebook: Giving Deceased Users Immortality Jennifer Styers Queens University of Charlotte

Facebook: Giving Deceased Users Immortality

Facebook: Giving Deceased Users Immortality You will always be missed can be a common message posted on a deceased users Facebook page. In this social networking world, even the dead are memorialized on Facebook, by allowing friends and family members to post comments, pictures and messages after death on their profile page. This allows the deceased to be granted a virtual existence and be almost immortalized to their loved ones. The use of this space can give users an outlet to post emotions and talk to those who have passed as if they are able to respond or share information for remembrance. After the Virginia Tech massacre, the public outcry on Facebook was prevalent for the mourning of this tragedy, though this was positive in this situation it is not always the case in other deaths. Facebook has approximately 500 million active users, who spend over 700 billion minutes on the website, which holds 30 billion pieces of content (facebook.com/statistics). It gives users a way to connect and communicate with friends, family and outsiders in a virtual space. These users share photos, comments, videos, messages, awareness and platforms through this website; sometimes dead or alive. When a Facebook user becomes deceased their profile is not always deleted. After a passing of a Facebook employee in 2009, the company created a system called memorializing a profile account, in Thomas MacEntees article Facebook and Dead Membersanother policy gone bad?(2009) shares what happens when an account becomes memorialized. If the company finds out about a death the corporation will automatically change the account setting to memorialized, this will include not being able to add any more friends, post from the deceased user will be removed and only current users that were friends with the member will be able to see the profile and comment on their page. This policy cannot be strictly enforced

Facebook: Giving Deceased Users Immortality

because the company cannot know about every death that occurs. Even if family members request to terminate an account of the deceased, Facebook will not give out login information because of strict privacy rules that are stated in the agreement of becoming a user. MacEntee tells Facebook believes heavily in the privacy of the users, no login information will ever be handed out to anyone who is not the specific user, even at request of family members (MacEntee). Facebook has received negative press over the issue of family however to date the policy stays intact and no changes are in the works to be made. Some families may want to cancel Facebook accounts for their deceased members but some find this as a way to connect and remember those who they have lost, the world saw this after the Virginia Tech massacre. On April 16, 2007 CNN reported A student gunman shot and killed 32 individuals including students, faculty and staff later turning the gun on himself (cnn.com). The nation stood in shock for a few moments then in the words of Cathy Lynn Grossman reporter for USA Today (2007) from her article Today We are all Hokies After the massacre the global community turned to Facebook (Grossman, 2007), students from Virginia Tech posted information on their walls of the days happenings, and students from other university showed their help and support through creating Facebook groups to remember the slain students. All across the United States numerous universities and colleges took part in a stance saying that Today we are all Hokies (www.vtmagazine.vt.edu). Groups were created for information on the days events, support groups for the students, and fundraising for a memorial fund for those who were lost. Many groups or comments on the website were to just show support to the university, many felt that they just needed to show that they were there for the victims friends and families even if through a website.

Facebook: Giving Deceased Users Immortality

The massacre happened in 2007 which was before Facebook had any policy about the deceased and what to do in the situation of death. There was debate on if the profiles of the individuals, who died in the shootings, would stay online. Facebook wanted to take the pages off the website. In Monica Hortobagy article Slain Students Pages to Stay on Facebook in USA Today (2007), said that Friends and family wanted the pages to stay online After deliberation the pages were determined to stay online, at this time in Facebooks history they believed that they needed to protect dead and felt that removing the pages altogether would be the best policy later they would adopt the policy that is listed above. Student John Woods friend of one of the victims is quoted in the article saying It may seem silly to post messages to people who will not answer, but these pages are all that we have left of their voices, and the rest of their voices have been stolen from us (Hortobagy, 2007). Silly it may be but this has become common practice for many of the deceased that are left on Facebook, giving them a virtual existence and has become an outlet for their friends and family. Deborah Rogers an English Professor at the University of Maine talks about her experiences with this new practice of memorializing. After the death of a promising student she once taught, she decided to take a deeper look into this new practice and the benefits and problems that it has started. She has written an article called I Poke Dead People: the paradox of Facebook (2009), her article tells her story of joining Facebook and the new experiences that the baby boomer generation can experience, later she reveals the story of her students death and the mourning that happened through Facebook (Rogers, 2009). Her article brings up issues that this medium has created through memorializing individuals. One of the issues that Rogers bring up is that Facebook users cannot stop talking, even with no answer, there seems to be a need to keep on communicating with the person as if they

Facebook: Giving Deceased Users Immortality

can still read their profile page. After her students death Rogers learned many facts about her student, which she did not know before. Through these posts that friends felt they needed to take part in she learned many facts and information that furthered the bond that she had once felt with her student, she believes that this can be applied in other cases with friends and family members of the deceased. She also talks about how many students who were friends with the girl who died, changed their profile picture to one of them and the girl who passed A problem started when after a few weeks the students didnt want to be the first one who changed their picture, they didnt want people to think they didnt care or it wasnt important anymore (Rogers, 2009). Rogers says that this process of memorializing does not help friends and family move on in the process as they should. Deborah Rogers is not the only one who has study this issue of death and memorializing on Facebook, Elizabeth Stone writes about the problems memorializing in the Chronicle of Higher Education her article Grief in the age of Facebook (2010), she tells that Facebook offers solace but it also offers uncertainty. One of the main issues that she has pointed out is that users do not know when to stop mourning. This new way of dealing with grief in the social network world is causing attachment issues, and is also taking the sting out of death. Unfortunately the world is seeing a rise in copycat suicides. Copycat suicides are after a person has witnessed the effects of the suicide of another they commit the act themselves. Stone believes that many of these cases have witnessed the reactions on peoples profiles and the amount of good attention that they have received after their passing. Stone tells of a young man who was pursuing modeling and acting in New York and left his suicide note on Facebook, some friends thought of it as a joke and others did not see it in time to respond(Stone,2010).

Facebook: Giving Deceased Users Immortality

Like Stone, Rogers brings up the issue of suicide she tells that Facebook has taken the sting out of passing, which has lead to suicides. The point that Rogers leaves off on in her article is that this outlet has Prevented people to deal with death because it creates immortality (Rogers, 2009) Users are unable to disconnect from their friends or family that have been memorialized on Facebook. When users still receive notifications on birthdays, or post that other users have put on the deceased walls, it makes it harder for the loved one to be able to let go and gives them a presence as if they are still alive. It distorts the relationships that they have once shared and what the reality is now. Facebook is an important medium when dealing with Web Space, Media Space and also now Dead Space. Freud says we need to detach to heal from the passing of a loved one, but Facebook has given the deceased a new life or virtual existence to their friends and family. It has become normal in todays society to see a memorialized page on Facebook or a group supporting one such as the Virginia Tech Massacre. Also to see others communicate with the deceased on their once Facebook Page is not unusual. Our culture has accepted practices as such and finds it normal, though they may not be what are best for users and their grieving process. This practice of memorializing has caused issues such as attachment and copy cat suicide which will have to be dealt with as this practice grows on. Though this practice has caused issues within the social networking world it has opened a realm of communication in this culture.

Facebook: Giving Deceased Users Immortality

References Facebook Statistics. Facebook. Retrieved from http://www.facebook.com Grossman, C. (2007). 'Today, we are all Hokies' on Facebook. USA Today, Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Hortobagy, M. (2007). Slain students' pages to stay on Facebook. USA Today, Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. MacEntee,T.(2009). Facebook and dead members-another policy gone bad? The Examiner. Retrieved from http://examinar.com Massacre at Virginia Tech (2007). Victims honored at commencement. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/virginiatech.shootings/ Rogers, D. (2009). I poke dead people: the paradox of Facebook. Times Higher Education, (1901), 40-42. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Stone, E. (2010). Grief in the Age of Facebook. Chronicle of Higher Education, 56(25), B20. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database. Virginia Tech Magazine. (2007).Today we are all Hookies, memorial issue. Virginia Tech Magazine Retrieved from http://www.vtmagazine.vt.edu/memorial07/today.html