Social media & death

Recently, sadly, one of my best friends (from primary school..who I was hardly in touch with now..but still remembered her to be my best friend) lost her life due to an illness. She had a beautiful life, with loving husband and amazing children. 

She was one of the active ones in Facebook, who posted loads of pictures of her family, her whereabouts, so everyone knew what was going on in her life. Facebook served its purpose.. without actually speaking to her since grade 2, I knew about how she was doing. 


I found out about her demise through Facebook, with a lot of people providing condolences on her page. It's been more than 3 months now, and I still visit her page and see a lot of comments from her friends even today. In some way, her Facebook page is serving to be a place where all these people who knew her can connect to her. Her husband posts pictures of their children, shares his thoughts on her page. 

This makes me think, did Facebook provide an alternate identity to her? It's certainly a good thing that people are still able to connect to her via this medium, like she can actually read all the things they have posted on her page. Like she can see those pictures of her beautiful babies. I believe in the genuineness of the feelings of these people. I believe it helps them get over this painful period in their lives. I believe her identity on Facebook is something these people can always hold on to. They will never have to let go of these memories that were created online. She will always be with them, forever. 






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