Death and Mourning in a Facebook World
Last Updated on Thursday, 20 June 2013 08:31 Written by bryfy Thursday, 20 June 2013 08:30
Earlier this week one of my Facebook friends unexpectedly died. That brings to 6 the number of people that over the last few years I have be-friended on Facebook who are no longer with us in the real world. In all 6 instances I knew the people in real life (which can’t be said of all of my virtual friends). Since his passing I have been scouring Facebook to look for tributes of this man that I knew pretty well a few years ago. It’s true that we would never have been considered friends, but we always respected and admired one another, and had many interactions in multiple contexts and settings. To use the word mensch would be totally appropriate in describing this fine young man. Quite a lot has been written about the role of Facebook and social media in times of death and mourning.
Here are a few links that you might find interesting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/fashion/mourning-in-the-age-of-facebook.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
I don’t really know what the point of this blog entry is except to say, that for someone who often professes that there is very little distinction (or at least a lot of blurriness) between the real and virtual lives of people today – I think that I might have got it wrong.
The virtual lives of people today might extend well beyond the duration of any of our real lives.
To begin thinking about the social media footprint and legacy that you want to leave behind in the world, as well as your very real life contributions – now that is an awesome and overwhelming thought!
