08.25.2021 08:00 AM
Social Media Algorithms Are Controlling How I Grieve
What happens to a loved one's account after they pass—and how does their digital afterlife affect the ones who survive them?
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The email from my dead mom casually arrives in my inbox one mid-pandemic afternoon, barely announcing itself. “Beverly Blum just commented on a link you shared,” the subject line reads.
For a single glorious millisecond I allow myself to live in a fantasy world where my mother is using social media from some perch in the great beyond.
And then I open the email: “Great piece — Dad.”
Oh, right. My 82-year-old father never wanted to suffer the indignity of creating his own Facebook account, so he lurks under my mom’s name. “Thanks Beverly Dad,” I reply.
When I stand up to make tea, I notice something else: the digital photo frame in my kitchen is displaying a photo of my mom on a subway in DC when she visited my freshman year. She looks like she’s never been happier; we’re on our way to the zoo.
I feel lightheaded, so I sit on the couch until the dog senses something pheremenolly wrong and transforms himself into a warm lump next to my thigh. Then I remember the other jarring images that Google Photos will inevitably show: my mom at my apartment or in the hospital, singing Ray Charles or...
Read Full Story: https://www.wired.com/story/social-media-algorithms-are-controlling-how-i-grieve/
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