It’s not my intention to gloss over Technological
Determinism, the Social Construction of Technology, or Mutual Shaping. That’s
what our week focused on. But I wanted to share something else. Something
morbid. It’s a fact that I read about a few years back.
Facebook is full of dead people.
There’s no recent estimate as to just how many Facebookers
have ‘liked’ their last post on the site before logging out forever—both digitally
and physically—but the number is likely quite large. Back in 2012, there were over
30 million dead users, their accounts silenced forever. According to some
estimates from back then, as many as 400 facebook users were dying per hour. These
days, the number is much larger—with estimates as high as 8 thousand per hour.
That’s a lot of silent profiles. It makes you wonder how long it will take
before Facebook becomes a mass digital graveyward.
I wouldn’t get too worried, though! Things aren’t as morbid
as they seem.
Facebookers aren’t dying off at an accelerated rate. There
are just so many users now (2.3 billion, in fact—almost one third the world’s
population), that the numbers look larger than they really are. And as far as I’ve
read, Facebook has no plans for deleting these digital grave markers. They don’t
go anywhere, so they build up, becoming more noticeable.
Do you think these accounts should be closed? It’s strange
to think about getting a notification about a deceased friend or loved one’s
birthday. Or the site grabbing an old photo of you and them and showing it to
you, years later. There’s something about the automated nature of Facebook that
makes its attempts at connecting people—especially people who have passed
away—almost cold and calculating, like trying to foster human love through an
algorithm.
Personally, I think these profiles should be de-activated, and finally put to rest.
This is a very interesting topic, to me personally. I was married young at nineteen, and my husband suddenly died in a car accident nine months later. We had spent most of our friendship and dating relationship (a longer time period total than our time married) living an hour away from each other, and thus conducted a large portion of our relationship online...on Facebook. After he died, his profile stayed active and still is to this day, though pretty boring and really quite inactive if you judge by engagements. I don't post on it, but sometimes friends and family do on the anniversary of the accident or on his birthday. Though I am now happily remarried, I still cannot bring myself to delete his profile. What saddens me most is the thought of the entirety of our online relationship disappearing with his profile - the messages, the posts, the photos.
ReplyDeleteBringing this into the conversation of the week's topics, I'm pondering what this all means in the context of technology shaping our reality. Social media literally has the ability to facilitate relationships that might not otherwise be possible. All three of the major media theories we discussed had something to say about tech changing humanity and our social networks - through tech, through content, or both. I think about the ways in which Facebook not only facilitated our relationship but also now plays in a part in my continual processing of grief. Facebook didn't determine the relationship, didn't cause the loss, and does not cause grief, but it certainly had and still has a part in shaping my experience of it. His still-active profile and its consequences (photo tags, anniversary/birthday reminders, etc) have undeniably made the way I relate to him different.
Just like I own the burial plot, the death certificate, his belongings, his photographs and the art he used to make - I also have final control of his online profile. I could delete it if I wanted and ask Facebook to erase every online representation of him. But I don't. I allow it to be present, to be accessible, and to still be a part of my life. And it really is the media, more than it is him, that still actively shapes my social systems today.
This is something that I have not thought about a lot up until recently, when a friend of mine passed away suddenly in a horrible car accident. It has been really tuff trying to cope with it all, but one thing that has made me smile and helped is facebook, sense the passing of my friend I have had a couple of facebook memories pop up on my phone and they were some picture that I had forgotten about and it made me so happy to find them this way. Not only that but when I am really missing my friend I will post on his wall a nice message or tell him how much I miss him, and I obviously know that he can't see the messages but for some reason it helps me, it makes me feel comforted by posting on his wall. Also on his birthday this year people posted tons of photos of him and friends and I scrolled through them all and it made me smile and laugh it was great to see more memories of him. That is why no I don't think that facebook should delete these graveyard accounts, because I am sure I am not the only person that feels this way about a friend or family member, and I think this could be a really great thing for people who are grieving.
ReplyDeleteThis post hits very close to home, literally and digitally. Like Carrie, someone very close to me passed away and I had to deal with the aftermath through Facebook. When my mom died Facebook was a main point of contact to her many friends, most of whom I did not have contact information for otherwise. I used my mom's FB profile to update people and send out information regarding her services and such. Her friends used the space to reminisce, celebrate, and grieve. While it certainly had an incredibly useful function through that experience, when her birthday arrived a year later it had another fraught digital layer. Do I post happy birthday? Will friends and family judge me for not doing that? For doing that? Do I need to see other people posting, each time feeling that rush of emotions? We now experience death IRL and digitally as those with digital selves pass on. And as wrenching as the experience can be, personally, I don't think deleting the profiles is the answer. It seems too akin to destroying a diary or photo album. Then again, I also think it's up to the family, friends, and primarily the person. As my dad is now very fond of saying, "We don't get out of here alive..." So, I'm curious: What do you all want to happen to your digital selves when you pass on?
ReplyDeleteThis is a topic that I really didn’t even know existed but it really is interesting when you think about how many dead people there are online. The stat that you presented really showed the impact of exactly the rate that Facebook users die. It’s important that you brought up how many people use Facebook though. When you think about it, people probably join Facebook at a fast rate as well with new generations being born.
ReplyDeleteI like that you also address the issue with this topic; what should we do with them? I think that the decision should ultimately be up to the family, but I think that most people would want to keep the accounts activated. The reason I say this is because all of the content that the person had will still be there. Even though the person is no longer here physically, they are still there online as well as the relationship and memories that you made with them online. A glimpse of what they were like is still there. I do get how it can be a little creepy because I have had friends who have died as friends on Facebook and it’s weird to get the birthday notification. Very interesting topic.
I think that this topic is very interesting. You wonder what should someone do if something happened to someone close to you? Or what would they want to happen with their social media? When something like a death happens you aren’t really thinking about what should happen to their social media. You start to think about it when the public starts to find out about what happened and comment. When I think about social media and death I think about my friend Cole and how it has affected me. He was killed in a very bad accident. I remember he was in the hospital and people were talking about what had happened with him but no one knew what actually happened. Cole’s mom used his social media to put what actually happened to him. I think that this is a very beneficial way to use social media for another person when they are in critical care. This was so that everyone would quiet down about everything and know what really happened. Also, for the short time that he was in critical care she would his Facebook to send updates to all of us. This was something that really would bring up our spirits during a very rough time. We would hear about how he was making different gains in recovery. When he later died we used his Facebook to uplift each other. It was his two year anniversary a few weeks ago. People will still post about him on special occasions like his birthday. I think that this is a great way to keep his spirit alive. When he first died people were posting pictures and writing comments about Cole for many months. I feel that people used this as a way to get out their sadness. I do not think that they should close down these accounts only because we all thought about happy times with him. We weren’t focusing so much on the sad part. It was a way to heal and to not forget such a great person.
ReplyDeleteI find this idea of deleting old accounts kind of pointless. What really comes with getting rid of accounts that aren't used or of people who passed. With getting rid of them or keeping them they aren't being used anyways so whats the point? It is crazy statistic though seeing in 2012 that their was 30 million dead users. That made my eyes open wide. Can only imagine how many dead users are now. Reading other posts I also have had a friend who passed away my freshman year of college and having his page still around helps with days that are hard. To see his smile is a feeling that you love and would hate to see it go. It also helps people to comment on their love ones anniversary like they are still here with us. If I passed away I would want my accounts to stay up for my love ones who would want to look and remember. I also feel like it's kind of a way of you showing the world you effected around you by leaving your own little footstep. It might not be a big one but its a important one.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is truly something I have thought about a lot. We never really know when it'll be the last time we talk to someone or connect with them in person or over the internet. I have heard many stories of people finding peace after their loved ones passing away through their facebook accounts. One specific that comes to mind is the story of a marine and his girlfriend, who had shared a lot of their relationship on facebook. After his tragic passing she forgot about the facebook account until facebook sent her a notification about their friendship. This brought her some peace and she felt as if it was their way of connecting. This example to me shows why facebook profiles of those who are deceased should not be deleted. Rather they should be turned in to a memorial facebook, which I have seen a couple of. I think having a memorial page or not having the page deleted at all makes loved ones of those who have passed feel a lot more connect to them even after their gone. It makes them be able to see their memories and it gives them a way to cope with the death of their loved one.
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