Mourning with Social Media:Rewiring Grief

become what we behold. We shape our tools and then our tools shape us.- Marshall McLuhanGrief is most easily understood as natural response to of a loved one. This most commonly connotes due to death of a loved one , or separation from a loved one. According to Small (2001), grief is the pain and suffering experienced after loss (p. 20). It is a private emotional experience (Hockey, Katz, & Small, 2001). Grief logically transitions into mourning, which is defined as of time during which signs of grief are made visible (Small, 2001, p. 20). Mourning becomes an observable and public action often involving death rituals (Hockey et al., 2001).Grief comes to all at some point of time in their lives. Birth and death are universal concepts affecting all human beings - death of oneself and death of a loved one. The grief experience, while universal to all, may be unique in its expression from individual to individual. It is a known fact that grief is possibly most painful human experiences that an individual faces during his lifetime. The abstractness of death leaves family of deceased extremely confused. Some common themes that emerge include anger, frustration, guilt for not having 'done enough' to save life of deceased, deep sorrow which at various times may seem absolutely endless, leadingto feelings of despair andhopelessness.Different cultures deal with grieving process following death of a loved one based on their own specific cultural rituals that may be dictated by their religious belief. However, internal process of grief is a highly individualized and personal process, differing by expression, context, and length. How different people cope with their own grief is largely dependent on coping mechanisms they employ for themselves. Grief has been explored and discussed by theorists within disciplines such as psychology and sociology.Within psychology, grief has been discussed and theorized by three main theorists - Sigmund Freud explored grief through his 'Model of bereavement; Elisabeth-Kubler Ross, who is known for her pioneering work on death and dying discussed stages of grief; and John Bowlby who explained grief experience through linking it to his attachment theory, highlighting causative factors of grief. Each theorization is discussed briefly to develop a comprehensive understanding of grieving experience :Freud's model of bereavement: It is important clearly differentiate between meanings of word 'grief1 and bereavement before discussing Freud's conceptualisation. Bereavement maybe defined as period of sadness and you feel after of a loved one. The can be due to several things, including divorce, death, or moving away. Grief and mourning are both a part of bereavement process (Parkes, & Prigerson, 2013)Hence, bereavement is broader term used to refer to internal process that an individual experiences following a of any kind, and grief, as explained earlier in paper, is a part of pain and suffering that constitute bereavement following a loss. Using conceptualization of ego from his theory of personality, Freud stressed that grief is response to of an attachment to ego. The resultant mourning, according to Freud, happens because of a sense of detachment to loved one.In case of death, this mourning has potential to escalate into melancholia, which Freud described to be representation of profound depression that grieving individual may be working on. According to him, it is process of mourning which forces grieving individual to re-assess and re-examine his or her current circumstances with a goal to rebuild and reformulate their understanding of their present as well as future which is now obviously changed as a result of that they have experienced. …