Social aspects of grief

Abstract

Although grief can be perceived as a deeply personal and unique experience, this research aims to explore society’s influence on mourning, particularly concerning the loss of ‘significant others’, as those closest to us form part of our biography. Society and the social actors the bereaved interact with after a great loss may greatly impact how one grieves in a wide social context. Thus, this study seeks to understand and explain the social implications and contexts which give rise to how individuals who have experienced the loss of a significant other choose to manifest their grief. Essentially, observing the interplay between social factors and expressions of grief. Due to the increasing trend of social media mourning the researcher also delves into the motivations behind posting a grief-related post on social media platforms such as Facebook. Ten in-depth interviews were carried out with individuals who have lost their parent or grand-parent in the past ten years. Following this, thematic analysis was employed to identify the key findings and themes. The results indicated that individuals prefer to process their emotions privately, as their grief unfolds participants identified items as tokens of their loved one’s memory. The inter-play between experiencing grief and social contexts, such as the workplace, social events and school were explored and found that, ultimately, the bereaved feel pressured to ‘mask’ their grief from society. Lastly, participants described their grief experience on Facebook, arguing that it has become habitual to post about the loss on social media, and thus expected and accepted.