Connecting with the dead: vernacular practices of mourning through photo-sharing on Facebook

This chapter zooms in on the practice of photographing the grave site and circulating it on Facebook – a practice that many of the Facebook users in this study engaged very actively in, and one that, in general, seems quite common on Facebook. I explore the practice of taking and sharing images of the grave site by investigating the visual expression of the images shared, the incentives for sharing them and the cultural meaning and significance that can be attached to them. My investigation takes its point of departure in the juxtaposition of the posted images with the Facebook users’ motives, thoughts, feelings and experiences, as communicated to me in semi-structured interviews.