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Can Twitter and Facebook Deal With Their Dead?

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i'll-get-my-cart dept.

Barence writes "One and a half million Facebook users die each year. Twitter faces a similar mortality rate. Yet the social networks have been relatively slow to deal with the uncomfortable business of death. Only this week has Twitter finally unveiled a policy for handling the accounts of dead members. Yet the process for closing the accounts of deceased relatives is complicated, while reminders to follow the accounts of people who have long since passed away continue to arrive, adding to the pain of grieving friends and relatives."

5 of 284 comments (clear)

  1. Not just social networks by Geoffrey.landis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's not just a problem with social networks, of course; the question of what to do with a site when the owner dies is a question that has to be dealt with by all websites.

    --
    http://www.geoffreylandis.com
  2. Re:I don't know about Twitter, but.. by berashith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When facebook reminds me that it is a dead person's birthday, that can be kind of nice as a reminder of good times. When facebook tells me that I havent contacted a dead person in a long time and I should try to re-connect with them, it is slightly upsetting.

  3. My daughter died recently by losing+balance · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My daughter died 2 months ago in a car accident. Many of her family and friends still post messages to her Facebook page telling her how much we miss her. I'm not sure if it's helping or hindering the grieving process, but at least for me, it's been nice to hear from all the people who loved her. Some share memories while others just say they were thinking about her. There have been links to YouTube videos of sad songs, sappy (but sweet) poetry, and slideshows of her. At least for now, I can't even bring myself to delete her from my contacts in my phone, let alone delete her Facebook profile.

    1. Re:My daughter died recently by toofast · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I know this is offtopic, but please accept my condolences for your loss. I cannot imagine anything worse than the loss of a child.

  4. Re:So serious by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nope, you're wrong. About the only unsurprising deaths are cancers and aids. As many people die of heart attacks as cancer, and death from heart disease is usually swift and unexpected. In fact, in my nearly six decades of having people die on me, only three were not surprises, and all of them were cancers. The rest were auto accidents, one friend was murdered by someone trying to rob him, and the rest were heart attacks or old age.

    If you'd said "100 years ago most deaths were not surprises" I'd have agreed; most people back then died of things like tuberculosis, influenza, etc.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!