A Study On The Characteristics And Significance Of Mourning Behaviors Under The Accounts Of The Deceased In Social Media Platforms

Since the emergence of portal websites at the end of the 20 th century,the internet has been changing people’s way of life at an incredible speed,and gradually integrating into their daily lives.Online mourning has evolved from independent portal websites resembling "digital tombstones" to a phenomenon that has almost completely transformed the mourning behavior of digital natives.The availability of social media technology has expanded the mourning phenomenon,and the new forms of online mourning have facilitated communication and ongoing connection between the living and the deceased,eliminating the previously forbidden expression of sadness.Social media is regarded as an online space for the coexistence of the living and the dead,creating new mourning culture and norms.This study first examines the evolution of mourning,from privatization to publicization,and the evolution of mourning theory,from Freudian grief,which should have been rejected during the Freudian era,to gradually being accepted by the public and academia as "sustained connection".Mourning for popular figures is considered a "deprived grief".Secondly,this study selects comments from the Weibo accounts of Li Wenliang and Gao Yixiang,as well as the Bilibili account of a deceased food blogger,as research objects,representing three types of individuals in social events,popular figures,and ordinary people.Text analysis and sentiment analysis are conducted on the comments,and in-depth interviews are conducted to discover the following characteristics of mourning behavior under these deceased accounts: there is an imaginary dependence between the mourners and the deceased,and the deceased become the most "familiar" strangers;the content of mourning is usually related to daily life,and mourning becomes a normalized expression,forming a sustained connection between mourners and the deceased;the emotional expression of mourners is usually related to the identity or symbolic meaning of the deceased,and the deceased account becomes a space for emotional expression with a certain symbolic meaning;there are certain norms in expressing mourning online,including in social media platforms,content and form,and reaction to mourning.Finally,this study explores the practical significance of online mourning from a digital emotion culture perspective,from the micro,meso,and macro levels.Online mourning can re-empower mourners with the right to express grief,find mutual support among similar emotional communities,and form mourning rituals that consolidate social consensus,while also awakening attention to social issues.By understanding the significance of online mourning from the individual to the societal level,online mourning as a culture should be widely recognized and accepted.The study also provides insights into the design of memorial functions on platforms,such as privacy regulation for digital heritage and the legalization of mourners’ grief through memorial function design.