Digital innovation and funeral practices: Māori and Samoan perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic (original) (raw)
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Death seems to be a permanent and unchanging event, when one's life draws to an end the lives of others are forever changed. When one thinks of the funeral they think of black hats, coffins, and of old rituals. It would seem foreign and inappropriate somehow to involve computers and technology in the death industry. Throughout this essay, one will see a brief introduction to social media, a look at historical rituals of the Judeo-Christian funeral rites and lastly the benefits of social media to mourners. This essay hopes to not only explore the evolution of death and bereavement, but to provide supporting evidence and proof that social media websites aid in the brief and process. Using Durkheim's social solidarity and Goffman's impression management, hopefully these will become clearer to the reader as they progress. Keywords: death, rituals, funeral, social media, facebook, evolution, impressions.