The Continuum of Life on Facebook’s Virtual Memorials

Abstract

This article examines the semiotic implications of social media interactive processes established when Facebook profiles are memorialized following the user’s death. It also observes the communication processes that occur through the deceased’s contacts interactions with the virtual memorial page. It points to Facebook’s symbolic and systemic organization structure role in creating a specific comprehension of online and offline identities in the social media environment. The theoretical framework focuses on C. S. Peirce’s signs and semiosis studies to help understand the communication’s phenomenology revealed in this context as well as the process of continuity of the physical life through its symbolic representations on digital networks.