

She's Still Dying on Facebook - Mz
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/shes-still-dying-on-facebook/373904/

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Mz
Excerpt:

 _In the months after her death, I was comforted by her profile, and by the
people sharing stories there—I refrained from posting not because I thought
the forum was cheap, but because I didn’t know what to say. My grief felt
private, personal, like something only Lea would understand. A few times in
the last couple of years I’ve come close to posting. The impulse is always
followed by anger—anger at Lea’s Facebook for posing as her living self, for
tricking me, momentarily, into believing that if I post I will somehow reach
her._

~~~
acjohnson55
I have that same absurd and hopeless reaction when I see the profiles of
several people close to me who have passed. It's not entirely specific to
Facebook. I still have this impulse to call my childhood best friend when I
hear about something we were both way into in junior high -- he passed only a
couple years ago, but never had much of a Facebook presence. In fact, he was
on Facebook under a pseudonym, which I only found after his death, as we had
drifted apart over our twenties. It was really tempting to send an Add Friend
request, even knowing it could never be accepted.

For those deceased people I knew who have a larger Facebook trail, that
feeling that they're still a Facebook message away is even stronger. I don't
think it's a bad thing though. That little bit of nostalgia helps keep the
memories fresh.

