Increasingly, individuals are bonding and maintaining relationships online. These digital representations of ourselves allow us to connect with others in ways previously not possible. One behavior that is growing in online presentations of self is grieving after the death of an individual in our social network. This work investigates the outcomes of online grieving from a transcorporeal communication model perspective, and draws conclusions on the outcomes of online grief behaviors.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AkertR. M.AronsonE., & WilsonT. D. (2007). Social psychology. Upper Saddle River. NJ: Prentice Hall.
2.
Aloise-YoungP. A.GrahamJ. W., & HansenW. B. (1994). Peer influence on smoking initiation during early adolescence: A comparison of group members and group outsiders. Journal of Applied Psychology, 79, 281–287. doi: 10.1037/0021-9010.79.2.281
3.
ArthurP. (2009). Trauma online: Public exposure of personal grief and suffering. Traumatology, 15, 65–75. doi: 10.1177/1534765609350781
4.
BosticcoC., & ThompsonT. (2005). The role of communication and storytelling in the family grieving system. The Journal of Family Communication, 5(4), 255–278.
5.
BrubakerJ. R., & HayesG. R. (2011). “We will never forget you [online]”: An empirical investigation of post-mortem MySpace comments. Proc CSCW 2011. Hangzhou, China. March 19–23,2011.
6.
ChoiJ. H. (2006). Living in cyworld: Contextualising cy-ties in South Korea. In BrunsA. & JacobsJ. (Eds.), Use of blogs (Digital formations) (pp. 173–186). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
7.
ChristophersonK. M. (2007). The positive and negative implications of anonymity in Internet social interactions: “On the Internet nobody knows you're a dog.”Computers in Human Behavior, 23(6), 3038–3056. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2006.09.001
8.
ClaesN.HurleyC. M., & StefanoneM. A. (2012). Online. Proceedings of the 45th Annual Hawai'i International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS-45), pp. 4417–4426. January 4–7, Maui.
9.
CohenS. (2004). Social relationships and health. American Psychologist, 59, 676–684. doi: 10.1037/0003-066x.59.8.676
10.
Collins TidwellL., & WaltherB. (2006). Computer mediated communication effects on disclosure, impressions, and interpersonal evaluations: Getting to know one another a bit at a time. Human Communication Research, 28, 317–348.
11.
DeGrootJ. M. (2009a). Transcorporeal communication and the presence of the deceased other. National Communication Association, 2009. Chicago.
12.
DeGrootJ. M. (2009b). Reconnecting with the dead via Facebook: Examining transcorporeal communication as a way to maintain relationships. An unpublished doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, Athens, OH.
13.
DeGrootJ. M. (2012). Maintaining relational continuity with the deceased on Facebook. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 65(3), 195–212.
14.
DetmerC. M., & LambertiJ. W. (1991). Family grief. Death Studies, 15, 363–374. doi: 1080/07481189108252441
15.
FalconerK.GibsonK.NormanH., & SachsenwegerM. (2011, April). Grieving in the Internet age. Penn Medicine: Center for Cognitive Therapy. Available at http://works.bepress.com/penn_cct/1
16.
FriedmannE.ThomasS. A.LiuF.MortonP. G.ChapaD., & GottliebS. S. (2006). Relationship of depression, anxiety, and social isolation to chronic heart failure outpatient mortality. American Heart Journal, 5, 1–8. doi: 10.1016/j.ahj.2006.05.009
17.
GilbertsonJ.DindiaK., & AllenM. (1998). Relational continuity constructional units and the maintenance of relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 15, 774–790. doi: 10.1177/0265407598156004
18.
GlickI. O.WeissR. S., & ParkesC. M. (1974). The first year of bereavement. New York, NY: John Wiley, Interscience.
19.
GranovetterM. (1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78, 1360–1379.
20.
GranovetterM. (1982). The strength of weak ties: A network theory revisited. In Social structure and network analysis (pp. 105–130). Sage, CA: Beverly Hills.
21.
GrossG.AcquistiA., & HeinzH. J. (2005, November). Information revelation and privacy in online social networks. In the Proceedings of the 2005 ACM workshop on Privacy in the electronic society. Alexandria, VA.
22.
HaferkampC. J. (1991). Orientations to conflict: Gender, attributions, resolution strategies, and self-monitoring. Current Psychology, 10, 227–240. doi: 10.1007/bf02686895
23.
HallamE.HockeyJ., & HowarthG. (1999). Beyond the body: Death and social identity. London and New York: Routledge.
24.
HessA. (2000). Maintaining nonvoluntary relationships with disliked partners: An investigation into the use of distancing behaviors. Human Communication Research, 26, 458–488. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2000.tb00765x
25.
HouseJ. S.LandisK. R., & UmbersonD. (1988). Social relationships and health. Science, 29, 540–545.
26.
HuebnerA. J., & HowellL. W. (2003). Examining the relationship between adolescent sexual risk-taking and perceptions of monitoring, communication, and parenting styles. The Journal of Adolescent Health, 1, 71–78. doi: 10.1016/S1054-139X(03)00141-1
27.
IbarraH. (1992). Homophily and differential returns: Sex differences in network structure and access in an advertising firm. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37, 422–447.
28.
JohnsonA. J.HaighM. M.BeckerJ. A. H.CraigE. A., & WigleyS. (2008). College students' use of relational management strategies in email in long-distance and geographically close relationships. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13, 381–404. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2008.00401.x
29.
KlassD.SilvermanP. R., & NickmanS. (1996). Continuing bonds: New understandings of grief. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
30.
KoenigH. G.MeadorK., & ParkersonG. (1997). Religion index for psychiatric research: A 5–item measure for use in health outcome studies. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 885–886.
31.
LaursenB., & BukowskiW. M. (1997). A developmental guide to the organization of close relationships. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 21, 747–770. doi: 10.1070/016502597384659
32.
LesterD. (2012). Bereavement after suicide: A study of memorials on the internet. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 65, 189–194. doi: 10.2190/om.65.3.b
33.
MaciejewskiP. K.ZhangB.BlockS. D., & PrigersonH. G. (2007). An empirical examination of the stage theory of grief. Journal of the American Medical Association, 297, 716–723. doi: 10.1001/jama.297.7.716
34.
MaguireK. C., & KinneyT. A., (2010). When distance is problematic: Communication, coping, and relational satisfaction in female college students' long-distance dating relationships. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 38, 27–46. doi: 10.1080/00909880903483573
35.
MarsdenP. V., & CampbellK. E., (1984). Measuring tie strength. Social Forces, 63, 482–501.
36.
McCartyE. F. (1996). Caring for a parent with Alzheimer's disease: Process of daughter caregiver stress. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 23, 792–803.
37.
McPhersonM.Smith-LovinL., & CookJ. M. (2001). Birds of a feather: Homophily in social networks. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 415–444.
38.
MitchellM. (2007). Constructing immortality: The role of the dead in everyday life. In MitchellM. (Ed.), Remember me (pp. 1–18). New York, NY: Routledge.
39.
NagerE. A., & DeVriesB. (2004). Memorializing on the world wide web: Patterns of grief and attachment in adult daughters of deceased mothers. Omega: Journal of Death and Dying, 49, 43–56.
40.
RosenD.StefanoneM. A., & LackaffD. (2010, January). Online and offline social networks: Investigating culturally-specific behavior and satisfaction. In the Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (HICSS). Los Alamitos, CA: IEEE Press.
41.
RuiJ., & StefanoneM. A. (2013). Strategic self-presentation online: A cross-cultural study. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(1), 110–118. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.022
42.
SandersonJ., & CheongP. H. (2010) Tweeting prayers and communicating grief over Michael Jackson online. Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, 30(5), 328–340.
43.
SigmanS. J. (1991). Handling the discontinuous aspects of continuous social relationships: Toward research on the persistence of social forms. Communication Theory, 2, 106–127. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2885.1991.tb00008.x
44.
StefanoneM. A., & JangC. Y. (2007). Writing for friends and family: The interpersonal nature of blogs. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1), 123–140.
45.
StefanoneM. A.KwonK. H., & LackaffD. (2012). Exploring the relationship between perceptions of social capital and enacted support online. Journal of Computer Mediated Communication, 17, 451–466. doi:10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01585.x
46.
StroebeM., & SchutH. (1999). The dual process model of coping with bereavement: Rationale and description. Death Studies, 23, 197–224.
47.
Stromer-GalleyJ., & MarteyR. M. (2009). Visual spaces, norm governed places: The influence of spatial context online. New Media and Society, 11, 1041–160. doi: 10.1177/1461444809336555
48.
TajfelH., & TurnerJ. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behaviour. Psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7–24). Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall.
49.
TuC.YenC., & BlocherM. (2011). A Study of the relationship between gender and online social presence. International Journal of Online Pedagogy and Course Design (IJOPCD), 1(3), 33–49. doi:10.4018/ijopcd.2011070103
50.
WaltherJ. B. (2002). Interpersonal effects in computer-mediated interaction: A relational perspective. Communication Research, 19, 52–90. doi: 10.1177/009365092019001003
51.
WaltherJ. B. (2007). Selective self-presentation in computer-mediated communication: Hyperpersonal dimensions of technology, language, and cognition. In Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 2538–2557. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2006.05.002
52.
WaltherJ. B. (2012). Interaction through technological lenses: Computer-mediated communication and language. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 31(4), 397–414. doi: 10.1177/0261927times12446610
53.
WaltherJ. B., & BoydS. (2002). Attraction to computer-mediated social support. In Communication technology and society: Audience adoption and uses (pp. 153–188). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.
54.
WaltherJ. B.Van Der HeideB.KimS. Y.WestermanD., & TongS. Y. (2008). The role of friends' appearance and behavior on evaluations of individuals on Facebook: Are we known by the company we keep?Human Communication Research, 34(1), 28–49.
55.
WesselmannE. D., & WilliamsK. D. (2010). The potential balm of religion and spirituality for recovering from ostracism. Journal of Management, Spirituality, and Religion, 7(1), 31–49. doi: 10.1080/14766080903497623