My old friend Dan asked “Seriously, folks. What do we do with dead friends on FB?” He linked to a Pickles cartoon.
Opal: I just noticed that my cousin Ethel is still one of my Facebook friends. I wonder if I should remove her name?
Earl: Why, are you mad at her?
Opal: Oh, no, she died two years ago, and it’s kind of annoying that she still has more Facebook friends than I do.
Someone responded to Dan, “Every day I’m reminded of old FB friends who have passed away and always wonder if I should unfriend them.” Dan replied, “Right! I feel like deleting is like I’m finally finishing them off, or desecrating their memories. It’s actually painful.”
I get that. I added, “Back in the day, when I had an address book – with paper and you entered records with pencil- when someone died, it took me a couple of years to erase them. It was brutal.”
What do all y’all do with the social media you interact with friends and family who have died? To delete or not delete; that is the question.
Armen
Simultaneously, I kept seeing “happy birthday” wishes to my old buddy Armen Boyajian, whom I knew from Binghamton Central High School because his birthday is March 2nd. Unfortunately, Armen died a couple of years ago.
I looked at the comments to his Facebook page and believe that some of them don’t know he’s gone. These weren’t “heavenly birthday” or similar. No wonder; he was only 68 then and would only be 71 now.
I took it upon myself to post on his FB page: “I was pleased that we reconnected. You were even following my blog! So I was so sad when you passed on 12/5/2022. You were a talented guy and a good man.” Heck, I wrote a response to a question he asked on December 2, but curiously, he didn’t acknowledge it. I doubt he ever saw it.
This begs a different question: what do I want to have happened to my Facebook when I die? I suppose I should talk to my daughter about it. My wife isn’t on Facebook, which is fine, but she does not understand its value, so my daughter would be a better party to decide.
