The phenomenon of "digital" death: formation and genesis of the attitude to death in social networks of students

Abstract

In this paper, we study the phenomenon of “digital†death, its genesis and the attitudes towards death in the context of social networks of students. As a result of the investigation we have discovered different forms of “digital death and the ways students react to it in social networks. We further investigate the origins of different user attitudes towards “digital death†and the impact of manipulative relation to death in social networks on the social reality. Some students stage their own death on social networks by posting images on their homepage, which has the intentions (i) to attract public attention, (ii) to express their auto aggression (iii) to make fun of death and (iv) to reduce their own anxiety of death by "sharing" the fear with other students. Our analysis shows that the main purpose of staging one’s death on social networks is to reduce the fear of death by creating plans, playing.

Keywords: Students, cyberspace, social networks, death, "digital" death, attitude to the death in the social networks.