New mourners, old mourners: online memorial culture as a chapter in the history of mourning

Abstract

How does online mourning differ from offline mourning? Throughout history, demographic, social and technological changes have altered mourners' social relationships with both the living and the dead, and hence their experiences of grief. Online technologies comprise the latest chapter in this story; earlier chapters include family/community mourning (preindustrial), private mourning (twentieth century) and public mourning (turn of the millennium). Pervasive social media in which users generate their own content have significantly shifted mourners' social interactions and the norms that govern them, partly in new directions (such as enfranchising previously stigmatised griefs; more potential for conflict between mourners and others) but partly returning to something more like the relationships of the preindustrial village (such as everyday awareness of mortality, greater use of religious imagery, more potential for conflict among mourners). Online, mourners can experience both greater freedom to be themselves and increased social pressure to conform to group norms as to who should be mourned and how.Online memorial culture is both a form of online culture, and a form of mourning and memorialising. This article examines it as the latter, sketching a brief history of mourning in order to show how online mourning both differs from, and does not differ from, offline mourning. Specifically, I will show how demographic, social and technological changes in recent centuries have changed mourners' social relationships with both the living and the dead, and hence their experiences of grief; online technologies comprise the latest chapter in this story. The first (1990s) generation of specialised online groups and virtual cemeteries changed surprisingly little, but from the mid-2000s social media's user generated content, together with its mobile technology-enabled pervasiveness, has been as significant as urbanisation and industrialisation in changing mourners' social relationships, not least in partially reverting to pre-industrial modes of mourning.

‘We do it to keep him alive’: bereaved individuals’ experiences of online suicide memorials and continuing bonds

“…One of the shortfalls of Facebook in this context relates to the problem of arriving at a singular identity for the deceased. Brubaker et al ( 2013 ) and Walter ( 2015 ) argue that this ‘identity work’ becomes increasingly difficult when it is a collective activity with contributions from multiple others. Facebook ensures that the deceased are remembered by a wide penumbra of friends.…”

“…For Walter ( 2015 ) potential for conflict can also arise as different ways of mourning become more apparent to others, but not necessarily more understood. In this extract, Philip expresses a need to mourn the death of his son with others, and honour him in a shared social space online: ‘I’ll never take it down ….…”

“…Online social networking profiles, such as those on the Facebook platform enable digital representations of the deceased to be stored and preserved in various forms. Thus, the Internet could be interpreted as a type of digital heaven where our loved ones continue their existence: a place from which they can reappear or be heard at any time, where the deceased become ‘online angels’ (Walter, 2015 ), where their images, behaviours, words, beliefs and accomplishments exist indefinitely in the electronic virtual world. Facebook in particular creates a new setting for death and grieving, one that is broadly public with an ongoing integration into daily life, heralding significant changes in the way that we grieve in the Internet era (Brubaker, Hayes, & Dourish, 2013 ).…”

Continuing social presence of the dead: exploring suicide bereavement through online memorialisation

“…To what extent does the establishment and maintenance of virtual mourning objects (Finlay & Krueger, 2011) assist survivors in explaining the suicide; making sense of separation; and locating the dead appropriately within survivors' own biographies? Are we witnessing the emergence of what Walter (2014) terms "online angels" in terms of the "real" person being deceased but their "virtual" (Facebook) counterpart living on? Instead of traditional perceptions of heaven, purgatory and hell, do we now have an additional space within the contemporary spiritual psyche-the ethereal space of the Internet-where the bereaved linger and continue to interact with the deceased?…”

The pervasive dead

“…And with smart phone technology, in any place. These dead belong to the user's own social networks (Walter, 2015b); tweeting grief and remembrance is even more public (Cann, 2014a). As well as messages to the dead appearing unannounced on screen, messages from the dead may also appear.…”