Grief expression in a postmodern era - motivations for posting grief-related messages publicly on social networking sites

Abstract

Social networking sites (SNSs) have become a persistent presence in our daily lives. While many researchers have been interested in the motivations behind why users adopt different SNSs and for what purposes they have done so, few have looked specifically into the expression of grief on SNSs. Through a uses and gratifications framework, this paper investigates the motivations for SNS users to post grief-related messages publicly. Analysing the results of a survey with sample size N = 428, it was found that the needs for news dissemination, preservation, relationship maintenance and social capital were significant motivations for posting, while social support was not. The results suggest that SNSs can function as outlets for grief expression when they are perceived to satisfy these needs. Keywords: social networking sites, Facebook, grief, uses and gratifictions, social media, social capital