We live an increasing amount of our lives on-line with social media sites, and several have had to face the reality of what happens to friends or loved ones after they die.
Have you ever stopped to ask yourself: What will happen to my Facebook and Twitter accounts? What about all of my blogs, YouTube video uploads, etc.? Have you ever known of a friend or family member to pass away, then Facebook suggests that you reconnect with that person a few months later?
The loss of a friend or loved one can be painful, and people deal with that pain in their own ways. While some may see the friend’s profile as a sore reminder of what happened, many people have begun to use their deceased loved one’s profile as a way to cope with the loss.
Some individuals may simply have a plan to store all of the online usernames and passwords in a particular area, so that a friend or loved one can retrieve it should they pass on. However, most of the time, a person may pass on without having left any of the login information behind.
Social media sites are beginning to create policies to address this issue, should a death occur. Generally, most accounts will be left unattended and will be able to be viewed by the rest of the world as it was left.
Facebook is one social medium that, instead of simply allowing a family member to take over the account, it allows a deceased user’s profile to be turned into a memorial.
Many people appreciate this option because it preserves the deceased user’s online identity so that people can still view the page and remember that person as they remembered. This also helps because it won’t constantly send out notifications or reminders about that person’s disappearance.
If and when Facebook converts a user’s account into a memorial, that person no longer pops up in the Facebook friend suggestions. The person’s profile also automatically becomes private to everyone but confirmed friends, so vandals can’t come by and trash the place without anyone there to clean up.
The contact information also gets removed, and no one can log into the account in the future. It simply remains there as a way to preserve that person as they were.
In order to do this, family or friends must fill out Facebook’s special contact form and include proof of death (usually a link to an obituary or a news article). Unlike other social networks, Facebook actually allows nonfamily to perform this task, which is helpful in a situation where the deceased user’s friends are more Internet-savvy than the family.
“Facebook’s policy of turning deceased individual’s profiles into memorial pages are the most appropriate and beneficial for all parties,” said Kelsey Laxton, a Psychology major. “There are people from my hometown who passed away whose close friends still post on their walls and tag them in statuses and pictures. I think it’s a personal way to cope that helps a lot, especially in the time immediately following the death.”
Students on our campus have had to face the loss of many peers within the past few years. Several students have used social media sites to cope with the loss of these peers.
Back in December 2009, a UTM Alumnus, Chace Wimberly, was killed in a motorcycle accident. This unexpected loss left his family, friends and Sigma Chi fraternity brothers looking for a way to cope.
Sammie Linton, a Sigma Chi and Political Science major, spoke on the issue of using Facebook to cope with the loss.
“I think it’s good. It was more or less a memorial. We that knew him could go back and see his photos, posts, and things like that, and remember the good times,” Linton said.
Other social media sites have updated their policies, which can all generally be found in each site’s Help Center. These policies allow us to reminisce, but not be annoyed by the constant reminders of reconnecting with a lost loved one.
