The public invigilation of private emotion has been shaped by media. It becomes a challenge to engage in the online world, without diminishing the integrity of emotional experiences. The cultivation of emotion responses to death online is a far cry from early experiences of grief.
Dying was once, a collective experience, shared between families and communities. However, as communities have moved online, finding a way to express and share grief has changed. Grief has evolved into an individual experience, to the extent that public expression can be contentious and confusing.
Death is becoming increasingly privatised. Family members used to care for the dying, yet that responsibility now falls on medical professionals. In this way it seems that while everything else becomes more public as a result of the online world, death is becoming increasingly sequestered; relegated to a sanitised and separate realm. Online communities and media reach further than ever before, yet the experience of death online is comparatively, unusually censored.
The orientation of death in media appears to be commercial, with graphic details presented in a practical sense, or for entertainment, yet condemned in an emotional sense. Deaths portrayed in the media are unlikely to be experienced by the average audience member. The social script of displaying grief is dictated by today’s media culture, yet is unclear for average experiences of death and dying which are not dramatic nor highly publicised.
There are culturally accepted norms around cues of grieving; where, when and how to grieve exemplify the rule-governed nature of private emotion. While grief is individual, it is shaped by the cultural context in which it is experienced.
Sociocultural factors dictate the connectedness of experiencing grief. A sense of solace may be achieved through the balance of private grief and public support. The current culture of internet sharing, makes the online world a platform for expressing grief and seeking support. This may represent a new era in understanding, expressing and sharing the experience of grief.
Online communities facilitate immediate support from peers and professionals. Yet there seems to be a fight between the modern era of sanitised and sequestered dying, and the modern era of freely expressing emotions online. Despite internet sharing being pivotal in socialising today, there is some contention as questions are raised about the lack of distinction between public and private.
These conceptualisations demonstrate a sense of confusion around how we should feel about death, how we should express this, and with whom. There appears to be an ethical back-and-forth when it comes to presenting death in media and online communities, potentially fostered by an unfamiliarity with death through sanitisation.
Lady Gullet 