Death and social media. This is a very hard post for me to write, but I feel it is important to write about death and social media. I’m not writing this for sympathy, but more to help me work through my grief while hoping to help others going through the same situation. And yes this is a very public and personal post from me. I usually keep things close to my vest regarding my personal life. I am not known to be an over-sharer on social media or in real life, but here goes: I recently lost my mother.
Mom had be very sick on and off since October requiring her to spend a lot of time in the hospital. It was a rough time due to the distance with her in Florida and me in North Carolina, but we talked a lot on the phone and I would email my dad photos of our daily life. I got the call from my dad saying she had taken a turn for the worse and that she was not going to last in this world for much longer. I am fortunate I was able to fly down to Florida to be with her in her transition to the other side and support my dad through losing his life partner. I held her hand and showed her videos of her grandson when she was still able to somewhat communicate before the morphine dip eased her transition from life to death.
She passed at 2:38 am on a Sunday morning in hospice care. As I sat at her bedside and then returned to the house, I wondered how I am going share my mom’s passing with friends. Until that moment I had never given any thought on a personal level how I would share such horrible news with people in my life. Do I text people? Call? Email? Or post on Facebook?
I decided to post on Facebook after I contacted my husband. Outside of writing my mom’s obituary, this was the hardest thing I have ever had to write. The act of physically talking about mom’s passing was very hard for me at the time and frankly it is still hard for me two weeks on. Posting on Facebook helped me not relive mom’s death as I would have done if I called people or met them on the street. It allowed me … for no better word … manage my grief by doing that. It give me some insulation from the pain. And it gave my friends the news without putting them in a spot to have to say or do something. Talking about death puts everyone in an awkward situation and most people are at a loss for words.
We all deal with death and grief in different ways.
As I was thinking about writing this post, I did some reading. I’d like to share those articles I found interesting and I hope you find them helpful as well:
How Social Media Is Changing The Way We Approach Death
How should we deal with death in the social media age?
While my mom did not participate on any social media platforms, it is important to think about what happens to your digital footprint when you die. I found this a helpful article on dead and social media, but morbid article:
A morbid look at what happens to your online presence after you die
Thanks for reading.
