Exploring Young Millennials’ Motivations for Grieving Death Through Social Media

King, Rachel and Carter, Pelham (2022) Exploring Young Millennials’ Motivations for Grieving Death Through Social Media. Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science. ISSN 2366-5963

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Abstract

Past research has explored social media grief; however, the motivations for using a range of social media sites, specifically by young millennials, to grieve death fail to be explored expansively in existing thanatology research. Fourteen young millennials participated in individual semi-structured interviews, specifically questioning their motivations for using social media sites to grieve. The interviews were analysed using the thematic analysis framework identified by Braun and Clarke (2013). Four themes were generated: online influence, to announce the death, personal benefit and the hypocrisy of online mourning. The online influence theme suggests that individuals are motivated to grieve due to online influence and pressure. The personal benefit theme suggested social media present many benefits for the bereaved, including continuing bonds, which motivated them to use these platforms. The analysis also indicated that within the motivations there was hypocrisy regarding how young millennials perceive their grief posting activity when compared to others.

Item Type: Article
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-022-00275-1
Dates:
DateEvent
17 August 2022Accepted
26 August 2022Published Online
Uncontrolled Keywords: social media, grieving, young millennial, thanatechnology, qualitative, psychology
Subjects: CAH04 - psychology > CAH04-01 - psychology > CAH04-01-01 - psychology (non-specific)
CAH15 - social sciences > CAH15-01 - sociology, social policy and anthropology > CAH15-01-01 - social sciences (non-specific)
Divisions: Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > School of Social Sciences > Dept. Psychology
Depositing User: Pelham Carter
Date Deposited: 07 Oct 2022 11:21
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2022 11:21
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/13645

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