Social media is changing death and funeral related social norms. Death is no longer a private matter for close family and friends, but is shared and commented on in a public sphere online. From the over three-million memorialized profiles on facebook to photos with comical taglines that show pictures of open caskets at funerals, some are concerned that social media has shifted the focus away from a respectful mourning of the deceased to an opportunity to express narcissistic tendencies of the user.
See Quentin Fottrell, When Death Meets Facebook: Social Networkers Upstage the Deceased, Market Watch, Aug. 16, 2014.
Special thanks to Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.
