HUFFINGTON
01.20.13
THE VIRTUAL GRAVEYARD
COURTESY OF MAKI PODELL
thing to his friend because he
thinks he would violate Mendhe’s
privacy after his death, tried to
submit his page to become an official memorial, but Facebook asked
him for a news article to confirm
the death. “I said if you come to his
wall, you will see the RIP message.”
He forwarded the memorialization
link to Mendhe’s brother in case he
had better luck.
‘CONTINUING BONDS’
For decades, the “five stages of
grief,” a model introduced by
Swiss-American psychiatrist
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in 1969,
dominated popular thought about
experiencing death. The stages —
denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance — essentially
supposed that people would eventually get over the death of a loved
one. Some of that thinking continues today with the shift of grieving
to social media.
In part, it explains why people
such as Aurora — who undoubtedly felt pain at his friend’s death
but was not in his closest circles —
would be ready for the profile of a
dead person to stop showing up so
often on Facebook. Aurora says his
grieving process is done.
But it wouldn’t explain why
someone like Moore would be
grateful to see her friend’s Facebook account live in perpetuity.
She would never ask for it to be
Maki Podell
was surprised
to see others
discuss her
husband’s
death on
Facebook.
Above, she
remembers
him while in
New Orleans.