Facebook: A Magical Place Where Nobody Ever Dies

I am (relatively) young at age 45. So it is very disconcerting when a classmate from high school shows up in the obituaries as one did last October. I was never that friendly with him in high school and did not keep up in the intervening 28 years, but I recall him being a nice fellow and I was sad to read of his passing.

His ghost, however, lives on... on Facebook, which has what I consider to be a rather annoying feature that suggests people we might want to "friend", based on our connections to others and on education or work history.

So this now deceased person's photo and name keep popping up as someone I might want to add as a friend. It's eerie and a bit sad.

Will it ever stop? Who knows. I am sure no one has the password to his Facebook account to delete it and even if someone did, maybe they want his page to live on in tribute. The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is all of 14 years old, so he has not really considered the possibility that one of his members might die some day.

So, I guess Dennis will continue to pay occasional visits - a poignant reminder that on the Internet, nobody has to know you are dead.

Comments

[Jessica]

I actually just experienced something similar with FB. It does make it a little difficult to achieve closure.