Facebook, the world's largest social network with over 500 million members, is facing an unusual problem. It isn't a typical problem, such as hacking, viruses, privacy, security, bad PR or losing popularity, but rather with the dead. Facebook's software offers to help it's users by reminding them of their friend's birthdays or connecting with a friend they haven't contacted in awhile. However, those reminders could lead to a friend that has passed away. Recently, there have been reports of such incidents. These problems can give a disturbing and eerie feeling for those certain people.
Facebook use to be a website that was primarily used by teenagers and young adults, but that trend has changed. According to the research firm comScore, people over 65 years of age are adopting Facebook at a faster pace than any other age group. This past May, there were 6.5 million people that signed up for Facebook who were over the age of 65, which is 3 times more than in May 2009.
Facebook has long been searching for a solution to this problem. In the early stages of the existence of Facebook, they used to immediately erase the profile of a user that they found out passed away. But that approach quickly changed when there were reports of pranks and false reports. There is no doubt that this is a sensitive problem for everyone involved and Facebook understands that. As a social network, Facebook wants to be known as a network that brings social connection and good news for all it's users, not give them chilling reminders of the dead. We all know that death is unavoidable and Facebook is putting in their best efforts to find a solution that can discover and prevent the shuffling of dead people's profiles within the social network.
In Cyworld, Korea's equivalent to facebook (a little more blog like), the profiles of the dead are usually kept online and you are still able to write to them.
