My Dilemma
December 26th, 2012 | 
Author: During the past few months, I’m having this experience more frequently. It’s been happening when I sign into my Linkedin account after being alerted that someone has endorsed me or when I check Facebook to learn which friends are celebrating birthdays.
I’m confronted with the profile of a dead friend.
Has this been happening a lot to you, too? If it has, what do you do about it?
The practical part of me wants to delete the person from my list of friends. But I can’t bring myself to do it. Deleting them from my Linkedin connections list or “unfriending” them on Facebook seems, somehow, disrespectful to their memory. I guess, in some weird way, the uncritical emotional part of my psyche believes, if I keep their profile active, that they somehow remain “alive”.
But, I’m being confronted with this issue more frequently this year. Today, at least three different deceased friends confronted me either on the endorsement pages of Linkedin or on my Facebook birthday list.
Has this been happening to you? If you were me, how would you handle it?
Posted in baby boomers, Baby Booomers, Branding, marketing, Mobile, Online Media, Politics, Quality of life, research, Uncategorized | 
Tags: FACEBOOK, Linkedin
Some friends shared some interesting perspectives on this issue which I appreciated. Dave Morris mentioned that he finds it therapeutic to say “Hello” on Facebook to a friend or relative who’s died. He compares it to visiting someone’s grave. Catherine Ranger also mentioned its therapeutic nature and compares leaving a message to the Jewish custom of maintaining a lit candle for the 1st year after someone dies. Kevin Ellstrom finds leaving a message to be a good way of communicating with others who were the departed’s friend and as a way to reminisce. There’s general agreement that Facebook is better for serving these purposes than is Linkedin. Which still leaves me wondering if it would be inappropriate for me to delete friends/connections who’ve died from my Linkedin address book. It’s awkward when they pop up in Linkedin’s new endorsement feature.