What do you do about death and social networking? I saw this story today in the NY Times:
Courtney Purvin got a shock when she visited Facebook last month. The site was suggesting that she get back in touch with an old family friend who played piano at her wedding four years ago.
“It kind of freaked me out a bit,” she said. “It was like he was coming back from the dead.”
via As Older Users Join Facebook, Network Grapples With Death – NYTimes.com.
It made me think of Joel Zucker, a former boss. He and I had a great connection and enjoyed working together. He recommended me on LinkedIn, and I was so impressed with his recommendation I added it to my portfolio.
I’m connected with him on Facebook and LinkedIn. And, of course, LinkedIn doesn’t know he died of cancer in February. As far as his profile shows, Joel is still working at Pearson.
On Facebook, Joel’s wife and friends and children still post. Here’s a post from his son just this week:
i miss u i hope they have facebook in heven so u can read this and we can still chat
I’ve posted too, sometimes just a “thinking of you today.” To me it’s a comfort … and it seems to be for his family as well … that there’s still a place we can remember Joel together.
The temperature was -27 degrees Celcius when I arrived Wednesday night, and climbed to -23 the next day, but since it was literally airport-cab-hotel-cab-airport, and the meetings were great, that was no problem at all.