Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Our relationship with death has evolved over time but a varying level of anxiety around mortality has remained a constant. In the last several decades, this anxiety has seemed to increase as we experience more existential stress and disconnect from the physical world in favor of the digital simulations we’ve built. These external factors have pushed toward a culture of death denial as we distance ourselves from the physicality and daily reality of our lives. Death mediated by the digital world further pushes us from the reality of our own mortal limitations, creating a world where we are safe to perform grief and death recognition without confronting it head-on. As we continue to move our lives online, we must look at how these digital tools, specifically social media, are shaping our interactions with death and how our design, use, and implementation of policies around online social interactions can fall short of considering the delicate nuances of human life. In this paper, I examine the history of our relationship to death as experienced through digital media, starting in the pre-internet age and looking at Vicki Goldberg’s “Death Takes a Holiday, Sort Of,” coming back to the present and exploring the beginnings of Facebook’s memorialization function and how policies and practices have taken shape on the platform.