Digitizing death:

In the past couple of years, Facebook and MySpace have taken the Internet and social networking to places never before thought of. From being able to access pictures from last night’s party or casually perusing wall posts, these networking sites consume hours of our daily lives.

Now they are digitizing another facet of life, or lack thereof: death.
So what happens to a user’s page when they die? The official policy of Facebook states: “When a user passes away, we memorialize their account to protect their privacy. Memorializing an account removes certain sensitive information, sets privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or locate it in search.

The Wall remains so that friends and family can leave posts in remembrance.” MySpace takes a similar approach to Facebook in that both websites require a form to be filled out and a proof of death to be sent in order for either account to be shut down or memorialized.

These memorials take on the same function as previous traditions surrounding death such as wakes and tombstones. Friends of the deceased can visit these pages and access pictures and comments left by other mourners.

Ann Steffen, University of Missouri-St. Louis professor of psychology, said that current mourning practices, such as memorials, function as a support system for those who survived. “This emphasis on memorials to help survivors is more common now than in the past,” Steffen said. “However, many mourning practices also served a social function for those who survived, including ways for their support system, and larger society, to acknowledge the reality of the loss. That was the purpose of mourning dress and other practices that helped make death visible to society. As these public signs have disappeared, those who are actively grieving the loss of a loved one can feel that their grief is invisible to others. Thus, electronic mediums such as Facebook could also help with that.”

However, as Kevin Aaron, senior, communications, pointed out, these digital memorials could be a source of negativity instead of mourning. “Being that it’s over the Internet, you’d have to be cognizant of the consequences also,” Aaron said. “You’ve got people who, on the other hand, are negative. So yeah, it will bring the community back and people will be able to pay homage and sort of distance and separate themselves from the whole physical experience of it. Yet doing it virtually … you’ll find that there are some negative people.” Aaron says that he has witnessed such negativity take place on memorial sites before.

Yet Travis Hamilton, history, graduate student, finds the whole concept a bit “creepy,” because it provides a cheap alternative to traditional methods of grieving.