Speaker & abstract announcement: Stephanie Owens

admin — Fri, 09 Jun 2023 07:07:22 +0000

Deleting someone who has died from social media.

Stephanie’s presentation will look at the emotional impact of the loss, or potential loss, of deleting someone who has died from social media. Most people now have online lives and online friends or family, but what happens when these friends or family die? For some, this is a way of remembering someone who has died and can be helpful in feeling that connection when it may be the only one. For others, the memory or reminders may be too painful. There have been some cases where conversations or photos have been lost due to the platform removing them, causing upset to those left behind. There is also digital “death tourism”, such as seeking out the social media of celebrities or mutual friends that have died. Whereas people don’t know these people directly, they feel it is a way of showing respect or having that connection in a community and understanding of what may have happened.

These “digital graveyards” are set to increase over the years and so it is important that we understand how this may look and what impact it can have on people.

The aim of this presentation is not only to encourage people to think about whether they would delete someone from their social media in the event of their death or whether they would keep the memory, but to get them to think about what they want to happen to their own social media after their death.

About Stephanie Owens

Stephanie Owens is passionate about social change and all things death and dying, having worked in the end of life sector for several years. Her specialist interests include acceptance and understanding of neurodivergent grief and attitudes towards death, and grieving for animals. She is currently a volunteer for Project Eileen which helps young people cope with death and provides resources to schools on death and bereavement.

Speaker & abstract announcement: Professor Mark Taubert

admin — Mon, 22 May 2023 09:36:57 +0000

What makes for a ‘good enough’ digital death? And how can digital media bring meaning during serious life-limiting illness, and afterwards?

In his talk, Prof. Mark Taubert will outline hospital and hospice experiences with patients, significant others, researchers and fellow healthcare professionals who have delved into digital legacy planning. The taboo around death and dying is starting to crumble in some areas, more than others. People working in, or receiving palliative care, can influence and inform the sometimes fevered debate. Mark will outline narratives from wards and clinics, where people have asked him questions about what they should do with digital content when faced with the end of their lives or in bereavement. From patients who have created video content for their families to view on specific dates in the future, to the ‘problem’ of widowhood on Facebook. For the latter thematic, he was interviewed by CNN in 2022, a time when Meta was receiving a lot of complaints with regards to this issue and its stance on relationship status. Patient and family journeys have at times been very challenging and hard, but digital solutions have helped with legacy creation, learning and planning.

About Professor Mark Taubert

Mark is a palliative medicine hospital consultant and clinical director at Velindre University NHS Trust in Wales. His teaching/research activities at Cardiff University include advance care planning, acute palliative care, technology & new media and DNACPR decision making.

He is the founder of TalkCPR.com and has a national lead role to improve public understanding on topics relevant to care in the last years of life and at the extreme ends of medicine. He has delivered a Ted Talk on subtleties in language that are relevant to modern healthcare delivery, and writes for international news outlets like the Washington Post, where his article was an editorial top pick of the year.–

Using virtual calling during COVID-19 enabling patient “goodbyes”

A snipper of Mark speaking at the Digital Legacy Conference 2021 can be watched below

DLC2023 – Digital Legacy Conference