Afterlife presence on facebook: A preliminary examination of wall posts on the deceased´s profiles

When somebody dies, her or his presence might still be hanging around others´ lives on Social Networking Sites (SNS). Several factors might influence the way we perceive this digital presence after the death including personal and religious beliefs. In this work, we present results from a study aimed at examining the differences between the way we perceive an online profile before and after the owner of the profile has died. In the few weeks following the death, the digital presence seems to become more salient, although this salience might be only transient. Our findings highlight not only the importance of studying this area, but also raise further questions within this area than need to be addressed in order to better understand this topic.