Facebook Forever!

Things seem to have got a bit surreal for the Seaside Scribbler. Earlier this week I found myself having a conversation over a hot chocolate with a Christian friend. There we were talking about life, death and the Universe, as you do, and the subject of the afterlife came up. She asked me what I believe happens to us when we die. I find this sort of question somewhat uncomfortable and, after squirming a little in my seat, told her I believe some part of us lives on, although I'm not sure exactly what: some part of our soul or spirit maybe. Two of my friends died in a car accident two and a half years ago and I can't quite bring myself to believe they're completely and utterly gone so, yes, I do believe that some part of them is still out there somewhere.

I asked her the same question and she duly replied "I believe there's a heaven and a hell and if you're accepted into heaven then you live for eternity in the presence of God". I asked her if she believes her conscious mind will live on and be reincarnated into a different body. She said she doesn't believe in reincarnation but thinks we will be given a new body. I was rather confused by this apparent contradiction but let it go.

A few days later I was checking Facebook for the first time in weeks and, you know that little panel on the right where it kindly offers suggestions for who you might want to become friends with? Well, who should pop up, but one of the aforementioned late friends. I know I said his spirit is still out there somewhere, but in Facebook? Come on, what did he do to deserve that? Or maybe this is his idea of heaven, leaving his mark on the online networking world and making sure no-one forgets what he looked like.

Which leads to an interesting question: how does Facebook deal with death? It can tell me all it likes that we have 6 mutual friends but I know my friend request will never be accepted. So his funny frowning face will continue to follow me as I go about my Facebook business, eternally trapped in the social media heaven and/or hell in which he now finds himself. Maybe I'll send him a hug.

P.S. Woah, now I'm totally freaked out. I just finished writing this post, then decided to Google "How does Facebook deal with death?" and came across this article from The Guardian. It refers to an example of a profile which reads "Andrew has no recent activity" because he died last year. Yes, the friend was called Andrew and, yes, he died a year before the article was written. Nuff said.