Wirtualne życie po śmierci. Doświadczanie śmierci na Facebooku

Abstract

Experiencing death is one of the elements of life that has found its place on the Net. Elements of social life published on the Internet are repeatedly interpreted and read by their users. The world of the Internet exists parallel to the real world. Death has its virtual representations. There are voices saying that the Internet, which is an electronic form of commemorating people, is “better than a material form of commemorating the deceased, because (...) it will survive as long as the Internet survives”. Experiencing, commemorating and celebrating one’s own and someone else’s death on the Internet in the face of the “virtual presence of others” is no longer just reserved for Blog or virtual cemeteries but has moved to the Facebook platform. The accounts of the deceased on this platform are in the form of virtual tombstones, often run by people closely associated with the account owner. The subject of my analysis was content (moderator posts, guest posts posted in the comments) posted on the Facebook social network, assigned to an active account called “Anna Przybylska”. I have reduced the analysis to the interpretation of images, signs and photographs to show how these contents (representations of death) influence the way Facebook experiences them. This analysis was used to find the answer to the question: How and to what extent Facebook allows Internet users to experience (through the interpretation of someone else’s death and accompanying images) mourning. The text takes the form of research investigations combined with multi-faceted considerations about death in contemporary culture, in particular manifested by mass communication.