skip to main content
research-article
Public Access

Orienting to Networked Grief: Situated Perspectives of Communal Mourning on Facebook

Published:07 November 2019Publication History
Skip Abstract Section

Abstract

Contemporary American experiences of death and mourning increasingly extend onto social network sites, where friends gather to memorialize the deceased. That "everyone grieves in their own way'' may be true, but it forecloses important questions about how people evaluate these expressions, their relationship to others who are grieving, and impacts on their own experiences of grief. Drawing from mixed-methods research conducted over five years, we describe how individuals position themselves within and evaluate expressions of networked grief. We start by identifying five orientations -- reinforcing, supporting, transferring, objecting, and isolating -- that describe how individuals evaluate actions of grievers, position themselves relative to the network, and act when they encounter grief. We then describe factors and tensions that influence how individuals arrive at these orientations. Based on our findings, we argue that the design of social media can be sensitized to diverse needs by adopting a situated perspective within a dynamic post-mortem network.

References

  1. Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann. 1966. The social construction of reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Doubleday. 224 pages.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  2. Jed R. Brubaker, Mike Ananny, and Kate Crawford. 2016. Departing glances: A sociotechnical account of `leaving' Grindr. New Media & Society, Vol. 18, 3 (2016), 373--390. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444814542311Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  3. Jed R. Brubaker and Vanessa Callison-Burch. 2016. Legacy Contact: Designing and Implementing Post-mortem Stewardship at Facebook. In Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '16. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA, 2908--2919. https://doi.org/10.1145/2858036.2858254Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  4. Jed R. Brubaker and Gillian R. Hayes. 2011. "We will never forget you [online]": an empirical investigation of post-mortem MySpace comments. In Proceedings of the ACM 2011 conference on Computer supported cooperative work. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA, 123--132. https://doi.org/10.1145/1958824.1958843Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  5. Jed R. Brubaker, Gillian R. Hayes, and Paul Dourish. 2013. Beyond the Grave: Facebook as a Site for the Expansion of Death and Mourning. The Information Society, Vol. 29, 3 (2013), 152--163. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2013.777300Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  6. Jed R. Brubaker, Funda Kivran-Swaine, Lee Taber, and Gillian R. Hayes. 2012a. Grief-Stricken in a Crowd: The Language of Bereavement and Distress in Social Media. In ICWSM 2012 - Proceedings of the 6th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media. The AAAI Press, Dublin, Ireland, 42--49. http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM12/paper/viewFile/4622/4965Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  7. Jed R. Brubaker, Funda Kivran-Swaine, Lee Taber, and Gillian R. Hayes. 2012b. Grief-Stricken in a Crowd: The Language of Bereavement and Distress in Social Media. In ICWSM 2012 - Proceedings of the 6th International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media, John G. Breslin, Nicole B. Ellison, James G. Shanahan, and Zeynep Tufekci (Eds.). The AAAI Press, Dublin, Ireland, 42--49. http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM12/paper/viewFile/4622/4965Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  8. Jed R. Brubaker and Janet Vertesi. 2010. Death and the Social Network. In HCI at the End of Life Workshop at CHI2010. Savannah, GA. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/aaf3/b480dc877adde04ab57421aef59aaee8b4f3.pdfGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  9. Brian Carroll and Katie Landry. 2010. Logging On and Letting Out: Using Online Social Networks to Grieve and to Mourn. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, Vol. 30, 5 (2010), 341--349. https://doi.org/10.1177/0270467610380006Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  10. Kathy Charmaz. 2006. Constructing grounded theory: a practical guide through qualitative analysis. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2007.11.003Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  11. Kate Crawford. 2009. Following you: Disciplines of listening in social media. Continuum, Vol. 23, 4 (8 2009), 525--535. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304310903003270Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  12. Jocelyn M. DeGroot. 2008. Facebook Memorial Walls and CMC's Effect on the Grieving Process. (2008).Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  13. Kenneth J. Doka. 1989. Disenfranchised grief: recognizing hidden sorrow. Lexington Books. 347 pages.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  14. Robert Douglas Ferguson, Michael Massimi, Emily Anne Crist, and Karyn Anne Moffatt. 2014. Craving, creating, and constructing comfort. In Proceedings of the 17th ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work & social computing - CSCW '14. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA, 1479--1490. https://doi.org/10.1145/2531602.2531631Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  15. Pin Sym Foong. 2008. Designing technology for sensitive contexts: supporting end-of-life decision making. In Proceedings of the 20th Australasian Conference on Computer-Human Interaction: Designing for Habitus and Habitat, Vol. 287. ACM, San Diego, CA, USA, 172--179. https://doi.org/10.1145/1517744.1517801Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  16. Pin Sym Foong and Denisa Kera. 2008. Applying reflective design to digital memorials. In SIMTech'08. http://mundanetechnologies.com/goings-on/workshop/cambridge/papers/FoongKera.pdfGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  17. Laura M. Funk, Sheryl Peters, and Kerstin Stieber Roger. 2017. The Emotional Labor of Personal Grief in Palliative Care: Balancing Caring and Professional Identities. Qualitative Health Research, Vol. 27, 14 (12 2017), 2211--2221. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732317729139Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  18. Katie Z. Gach, Casey Fiesler, and Jed R. Brubaker. 2017. "Control your emotions, Potter": An Analysis of Grief Policing on Facebook in Response to Celebrity Death. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 1, CSCW (12 2017), 1--18. https://doi.org/10.1145/3134682Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  19. Emily Getty, Jessica Cobb, Meryl Gabeler, Christine Nelson, Ellis Weng, and Jeffrey T. Hancock. 2011. I Said Your Name in an Empty Room: Grieving and Continuing Bonds on Facebook. In Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems CHI 11. ACM, San Diego, CA, USA, 997--1000. https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979091Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  20. Barney G. Glaser and Anselm L. Strauss. 1965. Awareness of Dying. Routledge, New York. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351327923Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  21. Barney G. Glaser and Anselm L. Strauss. 1967. The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. Aldine, Chicago, Illinois.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  22. Karen Elizabeth Graves. 2009. Social Networking Sites and Grief: An Exploratory Investigation of Potential Benefits. Ph.D. Dissertation. Indiana University of Pennsylvania.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  23. Elaine Kasket. 2012. Continuing bonds in the age of social networking: Facebook as a modern-day medium. Bereavement Care, Vol. 31, 2 (7 2012), 62--69. https://doi.org/10.1080/02682621.2012.710493Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  24. Joseph 'Jofish' Kaye, Janet Vertesi, Shari Avery, Allan Dafoe, Shay David, Lisa Onaga, Ivan Rosero, and Trevor Pinch. 2006. To have and to hold. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human Factors in computing systems - CHI '06. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA, 275. https://doi.org/10.1145/1124772.1124814Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  25. David Kirk and Richard Banks. 2008. On the design of technology heirlooms. In Proceedings of SIMTech 2008. http://www.cs.nott.ac.uk/ rcb/MScProjects/dis/Kirk & Banks Technology Heirlooms.pdfGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  26. David S. Kirk and Abigail Sellen. 2010. On human remains: Values and practice in the home archiving of cherished objects. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, Vol. 17, 3 (7 2010), 1--43. https://doi.org/10.1145/1806923.1806924Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  27. Dennis Klass, Phyllis R. Silverman, and Steven L. Nickman. 1996. Continuing bonds: new understandings of grief. Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia. 361 pages.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  28. Robert Kraut, Sara Kiesler, Bonka Boneva, Jonathon Cummings, Vicki Helgeson, and Anne Crawford. 2002. Internet Paradox Revisited. Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 58, 1 (2002), 49--74. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540--4560.00248Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  29. Cristiano Maciel and Vinicius Carvalho Pereira. 2012. The internet generation and its representations of death: considerations for posthumous interaction projects. In Proceedings of the 11th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems (IHC '12). Brazilian Computer Society, Porto Alegre, Brazil, Brazil, 85--94.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  30. Alice E. Marwick and Nicole B. Ellison. 2012. "There Isn't Wifi in Heaven!" Negotiating Visibility on Facebook Memorial Pages. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Vol. 56, 3 (7 2012), 378--400. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2012.705197Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  31. Michael Massimi. 2013. Exploring remembrance and social support behavior in an online bereavement support group. In Proceedings of the 2013 conference on Computer supported cooperative work - CSCW '13. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA, 1169. https://doi.org/10.1145/2441776.2441908Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  32. Michael Massimi and Andrea Charise. 2009. Dying, death, and mortality: Towards thanatosensitivity in HCI. In Proceedings of the 27th international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI EA '09. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA, 2459. https://doi.org/10.1145/1520340.1520349Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  33. Michael Massimi, William Odom, Richard Banks, and David Kirk. 2011. Matters of life and death. In Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '11. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA, 987. https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979090Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  34. Philip A. Mellor and Chris Shilling. 1993. Modernity, Self-Identity and the Sequestration of Death. Sociology, Vol. 27, 3 (1993), 411--431. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038593027003005Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  35. Lisa M Mitchell, Peter H Stephenson, Susan Cadell, and Mary Ellen Macdonald. 2012. Death and grief on-line: Virtual memorialization and changing concepts of childhood death and parental bereavement on the Internet. Health Sociology Review, Vol. 21, 4 (12 2012), 413--431. https://doi.org/10.5172/hesr.2012.21.4.413Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  36. Wendy Moncur and David Kirk. 2014. An emergent framework for digital memorials. In Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Designing interactive systems - DIS '14. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA, 965--974. https://doi.org/10.1145/2598510.2598516Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  37. Joji Mori, Martin Gibbs, Michael Arnold, Bjorn Nansen, and Tamara Kohn. 2012. Design considerations for after death. In Proceedings of the 24th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on - OzCHI '12. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA, 395--404. https://doi.org/10.1145/2414536.2414599Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  38. William Odom, Richard Banks, David Kirk, Richard Harper, Siân Lindley, and Abigail Sellen. 2012. Technology heirlooms?. In Proceedings of the 2012 ACM annual conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI '12. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA, 337. https://doi.org/10.1145/2207676.2207723Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  39. William Odom, Richard Harper, Abigail Sellen, David Kirk, and Richard Banks. 2010. Passing on & putting to rest. In Proceedings of the 28th international conference on Human factors in computing systems - CHI '10. ACM Press, New York, New York, USA, 1831. https://doi.org/10.1145/1753326.1753601Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  40. Natalie Pennington. 2013. You don't de-friend the dead: an analysis of grief communication by college students through Facebook profiles. Death studies, Vol. 37, 7 (2013), 617--35. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2012.673536Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  41. Whitney Phillips. 2011. LOLing at tragedy: Facebook trolls, memorial pages and resistance to grief online. First Monday, Vol. 16, 12 (2011).Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  42. Therese A. Rando. 1993. Treatment of complicated mourning. Research Press, Champaign, IL.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  43. Howard Rheingold. 1993. The Virtual Community: Finding Connection in a Computerized World. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  44. Roberts and Pamela Lourdes A. Vidal. 2000. Perpetual Care in Cyberspace: A Portrait of Memorials on the Web. OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying, Vol. 40, 4 (2000), 521--545. https://doi.org/10.2190/3BPT-UYJR-192R-U969Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  45. Pamela Roberts. 2004. The living and the dead: Community in the virtual cemetery. OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying, Vol. 49, 1 (2004), 57--76.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  46. Sherry Turkle. 1995. Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet. Touchstone Books, New York, NY.Google ScholarGoogle ScholarDigital LibraryDigital Library
  47. Elise van den Hoven, Wina Smeenk, Hans Bilsen, Rob Zimmermann, Simone de Waart, and Koen van Turnhout. 2008. Communicating Commemoration. In Proceedings of SIMTech 2008. Cambridge, UK. http://www.elisevandenhoven.com/publications/hoven-simtech08.pdfGoogle ScholarGoogle Scholar
  48. Tony Walter. 1999. On Bereavement: The Culture of Grief. Taylor & Francis Group. 232 pages.Google ScholarGoogle Scholar
  49. Tony Walter. 2000. Grief narratives: The role of medicine in the policing of grief. Anthropology & Medicine, Vol. 7, 1 (2000), 97--114. https://doi.org/10.1080/136484700109377Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  50. Tony Walter, Rachid Hourizi, Wendy Moncur, and Stacey Pitsillides. 2011. Does the Internet Change How We Die and Mourn? Overview and Analysis. OMEGA: The Journal of Death and Dying, Vol. 64, 4 (2011), 275--302. https://doi.org/10.2190/OM.64.4.aGoogle ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref
  51. Clare Wright and Adrian Coyle. 1996. Experiences of AIDS-related bereavement among gay men: implications for care. Mortality, Vol. 1, 3 (1996), 267--282. https://doi.org/10.1080/713685840Google ScholarGoogle ScholarCross RefCross Ref

Index Terms

  1. Orienting to Networked Grief: Situated Perspectives of Communal Mourning on Facebook

          Recommendations

          Comments

          Login options

          Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

          Sign in

          Full Access

          PDF Format

          View or Download as a PDF file.

          PDF

          eReader

          View online with eReader.

          eReader
          About Cookies On This Site

          We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website.

          Learn more

          Got it!