Virtual Mourning and Memory Construction on Facebook:Here are the Terms of Use

摘要

This article investigates the online information practices ofpersons grieving and mourning the death of another viaFacebook through an examination of how, or if, thesepractices and Facebook’s terms of use policies haveimplications for those in mourning and/or the memory ofthe deceased. To explore these questions the researcherscontrasted traditional publicly recorded asynchronousmodes of grieving (i.e. obituaries) with Facebook’sasynchronous features (i.e. pages, photos, messages,profiles, comments etc.) Additionally, by applyingobservational techniques to Facebook memorial pages andFacebook profile pages, conducting a survey, andfollowing-up on survey responses with interviews, theresearchers examined the benefits and issues of onlineinformation sharing via Facebook when coping with loss. Itwas found that immediacy of publishing comments,messages, wall posts, photos, etc. provided Facebookmourners with a quick outlet for emotion and a means oftimely group support via responding comments however,these actions directly affect the deceased’s online curationof self, memory, as well as created an environment ofcompetition amongst the mourning. The aforementionedbenefits and complications of using Facebook duringbereavement are shaped by the policy outlined by Facebook,as Facebook’s present policy leaves the deceased’ssurviving family and/or friends to change the status of theprofile to be memorialized, close the profile account, orremove a memorial page thus, leaving one’s reputationbeyond the grave in the hands of others.