Death comes to all of us in time. Unfortunately. And each and every one of us leaves behind friends and family who have to deal with the mourning process as best they can. What cannot help is having a constant reminder that someone is no longer with us on social networking sites such as Facebook. Which is why the idea of a memorial profile is such a good one – saving heartbreak and offering closure at the same time.

I’m sure we all think about our own mortality from time to time. But how many of us have thought about it in the context of the social networking sites we currently inhabit? Or what about blogs and Web sites which bear our names, photos, and thoughts? When we’re gone they will likely remain as they were in perpetuity. Unless it happens to be GeoCities and is culled by a ruthless dictator such as Yahoo.

Facebook has received complaints in the past from people who have been reminded of a dead friend’s birthday or even had them suggested as a friend. Not that they’d have their friend request accepted of course. So Facebook has created a solution to the issue – memorialized profiles.

As explained in a recent Facebook Blog post, if Facebook is informed that someone with a profile on the site has passed away, it will memorialize it. This effectively freezes it in the state it was when the person died, with no suggestions or requests sent out and only existing friends able to visit the profile in question.

This sounds like a morbid idea but it’s a necessary one that is a solution to a problem that is only now starting to crop up in this Internet age. It ensures the sanctity of someone’s presence on the Web even after they’ve shuffled off the mortal coil.

Related:

Entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 3:15 am under Internet, Social Media, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
Stumble It!