Grieving online
A text mining analysis of narratives of grief on Reddit
Keywords:
text analysis, grief, coping, narrative, sense-makingAbstract
As the world has returned to a sense of normalcy following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the compounded grief experiences continue to linger and we realized many have experienced grief to varying degrees, and about a variety of issues. The pandemic also created an environment where people where restricted to cope and seek support in virtual spaces. The realization we could turn online to find support came with the realization that we could sidestep the taboo nature of grief, and allow us to craft a narrative to help us cope with that grief. This study used text analysis of Reddit post using #grieving, #griefandloss, #grief to better understand just how people used this social media site to grieve. We found that the topics varied from death to relationships to grief experienced during role-playing games. This research opens the door to learn more about why people turn to the internet, what kind of support people find, the benefits of the interactions online, and if internet support of grief is timely or will persist.
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