P.S. I love you : understanding the impact of posthumous digital messages

A number of digital platforms and services have recently emerged that allow users to create posthumous forms of communication, effectively arranging for the delivery of messages from ‘beyond the grave’. Despite some evidence of interest and popularity of these services, little is known about how posthumous messages may impact the people who receive them. We present a qualitative study that explores the type of experiences potentially triggered upon receiving such messages. Our findings firstly suggest that posthumous messaging services have the potential to alter the relationship between the bereaved and the deceased, and secondly provide insight into how users make sense of this altered relationship. Through the inference of a set of design considerations for posthumous communication services, we reveal a number of conflicts that are not easily solvable through technological means alone, and which may serve as starting points for further research. Our work extends the growing body of research that is concerned with digital interactions related to death and dying

Expressions of Grief on Facebook: Navigating Discomfort, Persistent Identity, and Public Memorialization

When someone dies, their online identity does not die with them. If a deceased Facebook user leaves behind a once active profile, friends and family members may choose to use this virtual space to express grief, interact with one another, and engage in active memorialization. Young adults who are traditionally marginalized in the grieving process can take advantage of the digital space to engage in mourning rituals. Through qualitative inquiry and in-depth interviews with 20 young adults who have dealt with the death of a friend or family member on Facebook, this study addresses phenomenological research questions concerning expression of grief on Facebook, what memorialization on Facebook entails, and how young adults interact with a deceased user\u27s profile. Grief theories and characteristics of social network sites (SNSs) are considered as concepts of thanatechnology and online community are explored. Emergent theme analysis shows that young adults can contribute to a dynamic memory archive associated with a friend\u27s identity by sharing stories and photographs on Facebook. Finding and giving support as well as maintaining a connection with the deceased are important to participants, who navigate a complicated hierarchy of acceptable expression, based on their relative closeness to the deceased. Participants also express varying levels of comfort and discomfort, related to appropriate expression and interaction with a persistent profile. This research study discusses the implications of such interaction, concluding that Facebook prevents users from addressing the fundamental reality of death and that the site can enable disingenuous expression of grief

Remains in the network:reconsidering thanatosensitive design in loss

In the end, we are all dead. But for some of us, our deaths become entangled online. Our vast data legacies and the appropriation of social media by the bereaved can result in online networks being used to mediate loss, mourning and memory in the event of a death. Recognising this phenomenon between death and technologies has resulted in researchers and designers being asked to become ‘thanatosensitive’, or death-sensitive. In particular, designers have been presented with Thanatosensitive Design [TSD] as an optimistic and non-prescriptive design methodology, devised by Massimi, for researching, designing and developing thanatosensitive technologies within sensitive end-of-life contexts (Massimi, 2012). This thesis is an invitation to reconsider TSD, to rethink what sensitive design practice could look like and the kinds of commitments and claims it is making to bereaved people. This reconsideration takes place through the development of an interdisciplinary conceptual framework that supports ‘thinking with’ and ‘caring for’ other elements in a situation of inquiry (Diprose, 2009; Puig de la Bellacasa, 2012; Puig de la Bellacasa, 2011). Empirically, this exposes a messy human landscape of loss, non-living ‘ghosts’ and non-human networks, the presences and agencies of which unsettle the human-centred ethico-political assumptions that lie within the TSD agenda. This thesis embraces the disturbances that have arisen from empirical and theoretical commitments and uses them as a way to reconsider what thanatosensitivity looks like when it embraces a more inclusive ethico-political landscape that decentres the human. Therefore, this thesis contributes to emerging literatures at the recent intersection between death and technology studies, firstly, by exposing a complex and previously unaccounted for messy ecology of loss across networks online, and, secondly, by reflexivity, exploring how this messy ecology disturbs the centrality of the human in TSD framings. These contributions cumulate in a reconfiguration of TSD that draws out an alternative approach and considerations for practitioners interested in designing sensitively for the end of life. This reconfiguration aims to be socially responsible, inclusive and ecologically sensitive in ways that set it apart from Massimi’s original concept of TSD. This new vision of sensitive design is summarised into a design statement and a polemic design manifesto to aid practitioners who wish to sensitively design for the end of life. The thesis leaves us with a speculative afterword, to consider future work and envision what other forms designing for death might take if we continue to push at the human-centeredness within design ecologies in light of the apocalyptic shadow of the Anthropocene

Thanatosensitively Designed Technologies for Bereavement Support

Computing supports a number of activities across the lifespan, from interactive games for children to smart homes for seniors. However, one part of the lifespan which is often overlooked by application designers is the end of life – a period marked by issues of mortality, dying, and death. My thesis takes up this area as its object of study, and does so specifically by examining the bereaved as a target population. I argue that most modern technologies are not designed with proper acknowledgement of the eventual death of their users, and that this oversight results in a series of circumstances which complicate affairs for bereaved family members. Based on evidence from a survey and interview study, I identify opportunities for technology designers to support bereavement activities through a process called “thanatosensitive design. ” My thesis seeks to contribute methodological insights for designing for the end of the lifespan, a novel system which connects bereaved individuals together, and account of how this system mediates social support

Thanatosensitively Designed Technologies for Bereavement Support

Increasingly, technology impacts how we communicate and behave following the death of a loved one. However, little is known about technology use by the bereaved. This thesis contributes to understanding this phenomenon through three linked studies. These studies establish an appreciation of how technology engages with human mortality, and proposes "thanatosensitive design" (TSD) as an approach for developing such systems. An exploratory study fi rst examines technology use by the bereaved through a survey with follow-up interviews. Findings show that systems for inheriting data and devices are lacking, despite widespread use of technology for remembrance and communication. Using digital assets in social support is selected as a domain for further inquiry. The second study consists of focus groups with bereaved parents at two community organizations complemented by the perspectives of professional bereavement workers. Based on this fieldwork, 6 considerations concerning interpersonal communication, new ways of being, and materiality are presented. These considerations suggest that systems should permit connections with peers, support storytelling activities, and avoid tendencies to "fix" grief, among others. In the final study, I present Besupp - a website that permits bereaved users to engage in online peer-support groups. Besupp applied these design considerations and was deployed in a 10-week study. Nineteen bereaved individuals met in 3 support groups for bereaved parents, partners/spouses, and young adults. Based on system logs/data, questionnaires, and interviews, the study identified barriers to using digital mementos, preferences for online support systems, and issues concerning timing of use. In the discussion, I reflect on the three studies through four thematic lenses: temporality, materiality, identity, and research ethics/methods. I remark on how systems should consider the varying emotional needs of the bereaved over time. In the conclusion, I summarize and reflect on the status of TSD and identify areas for future work concerning social support for the bereaved, and computing's role at the end of life more broadly.Ph