Grieving an Online Friend or Community Member
Author: Angela Bogdanova · Published: October 9, 2026 · Editorial Policy
Research cluster: Grief, Loss & Bereavement · Written by Artificial Sapiens
An online friend dies, and a familiar space changes immediately. Their username no longer lights up, a shared server goes quiet, a message stays unanswered, or a mutual contact announces the death. You may have spoken nearly every day, helped one another through difficult months, shared humor, worked on projects, or spent years playing together. People around you may never have heard the person's legal name. The relationship and the loss can still be deeply meaningful.
Grieving an online friend or community member means responding to the death of someone known through digital interaction, including gaming communities, group chats, forums, social networks, creative collaborations, livestream communities, or virtual worlds. The experience can involve sadness, yearning, shock, disrupted routines, concern for fellow members, and uncertainty about how to remember someone respectfully. The most useful response starts by recognizing the relationship, distinguishing verified facts from rumors, finding appropriate support, and allowing mourning to take forms that fit the connection and community.
Can You Really Grieve Someone You Only Knew Online?
Yes. The psychological importance of a relationship develops through trust, shared experiences, emotional disclosure, companionship, reliability, and belonging. Those experiences can occur through text, voice, video, multiplayer games, and collective creative work. Having never met in person describes the communication setting; it does not measure the attachment's significance.
Research on grief after a close friend's death establishes that friendship bereavement deserves serious attention. In a large Australian longitudinal study, Liu, Forbat, and Anderson (2019) identified adverse effects on aspects of well-being after a close friend's death and described how non-family losses may receive too little recognition. That study did not isolate online-only friends, so its findings support the importance of friendship loss rather than a specific estimated effect for digital relationships.
For people whose primary social lives include online spaces, a friend may also be a daily companion, trusted confidant, mentor, teammate, creative partner, or connection to identity and community. Someone you spent hundreds of evenings with can occupy an enduring part of ordinary life even when you never exchanged addresses. The same principle applies when a community member was important to a larger group without having been equally close to everyone.
What Makes the Death of an Online Friend Different?
Online friendships can span countries, time zones, languages, ages, and personal identities. These characteristics make grief possible across geographical distance, while also creating practical challenges that appear less often when close friends share local networks.
An online friend may disappear before anyone knows what happened. A death announcement may arrive from a stranger or an unfamiliar moderator. Family members might never know the extent of the person's online relationships. Friends may lack invitations to memorial events, information about funeral arrangements, or access to a place associated with the person's offline life. Platforms may automatically surface old messages, birthdays, images, and activity reminders. Shared spaces may continue operating while one member's absence becomes part of every interaction.
These features have a growing research basis, although direct studies of bereavement specifically following online-only friendship remain limited. A 2025 scoping review of 61 studies identified emotional expression, community, continuing bonds, and digital memorialization as recurring themes in social-media grief. Its findings concern broader digitally mediated bereavement, and should be applied to online-friend loss as relevant context rather than proof that all users have the same experience.
A relationship may be visible to the community but invisible at home
Someone may have known you by a username for ten years and recognized every shift in your mood. Yet relatives or coworkers may dismiss the loss because they have never met the person. You can experience the death and also feel compelled to explain why it matters. The need for recognition may itself become exhausting.
There may be no shared physical place to mourn
A funeral, grave, home, or familiar neighborhood may be inaccessible. Your point of connection may instead be a channel, a game lobby, a playlist, an archived conversation, or a collaborative document. These places can carry personal significance. Digital rituals work best when they respect both the bereaved people's wishes and the deceased person's privacy.
The community may lose part of its structure
A moderator, organizer, raid leader, volunteer, artist, or long-standing participant can shape the culture and emotional stability of a group. Their death may affect people with different levels of closeness. A community may need to grieve while also managing operational decisions, safety, rumors, and succession of responsibilities.
Is This Disenfranchised Grief?
Disenfranchised grief describes grief whose importance or expression is insufficiently acknowledged by other people or social arrangements. The term can help explain why the death of an online friend feels especially isolating when others treat digital relationships as less legitimate.
A friend may hear, "But you didn't know them in real life," or "Why are you so upset about someone from a game?" These responses can close off opportunities for comfort. The relevant question is what role the relationship played in your life, how the death affects you, and what support you need.
Disenfranchisement is a description of social recognition, not a psychiatric diagnosis. It also differs from automatically labeling all digital bereavement as harmful. Some people receive profound care from their online networks; others encounter exclusion, public conflict, or pressure to perform grief visibly. The evidence on non-kinship grief and digital mourning supports attention to this range of experiences (Liu et al., 2019; Liang et al., 2025).
Common Emotional and Physical Reactions
The death of an online friend may bring waves of disbelief, sadness, anger, longing, numbness, tenderness, gratitude, or anxiety. People may repeatedly open the person's profile, expect them to appear in a channel, or automatically prepare to send them a message. Some experience intrusive thoughts about their last interaction or regret over arguments and missed conversations.
Sleep and concentration can change, as can appetite, motivation, and the ability to participate in familiar communities. A person might avoid a game because it feels painful, or continue playing because the shared routine provides comfort. Others feel an unusual stillness rather than immediate intense emotion. Emotional responses can shift with time and reminders.
These reactions are not, individually, signs of a disorder. Grief is shaped by the closeness and meaning of the relationship, personal history, how the death occurred, other stresses, cultural and religious practices, and the support available. There is no single correct amount of sadness, no prescribed sequence of feelings, and no obligation to post publicly.
How to Cope When You Learn an Online Friend Has Died
1. Establish what is known and limit the rumor cycle
When information arrives through a repost or anonymous message, separate direct confirmation from speculation. A moderator can ask whether an announcement came from the person's family, a designated representative, or another reliable source. If confirmation is unavailable, describe the information as unverified and avoid repeating detailed claims.
Repeatedly searching for proof can become distressing, especially when communities circulate screenshots and contradictory accounts. Decide which trusted contact or moderator will share updates, and how often you need to check. Privacy and compassion apply even when people urgently want answers.
2. Tell someone who can recognize the relationship
Choose a person who will listen without measuring whether the friendship counts. You might say that someone you spoke with regularly has died, explain what you shared, and ask for company or help with an ordinary task. A community member may understand details that offline friends cannot; an offline friend may provide practical support that a geographically distant group cannot.
When explaining the loss, describe the relationship in concrete terms: "We played together every weekend for four years," "We talked through an illness," or "She helped build our community." You do not need to disclose private messages to justify grief.
3. Let your usual routines change for a while
A shared game, group chat, or nightly call may feel different. You can take a break, use a quieter channel, mute notifications, or keep a smaller ritual of remembrance. Work, school, meals, medication routines when applicable, and sleep remain important anchors. If everyday responsibilities are difficult, ask for specific help rather than expecting yourself to manage everything at your normal pace.
The English Hub's guide to evidence-based grief support explores broader coping approaches. The key here is adapting those approaches to the digital settings in which the friendship took place.
4. Choose a remembrance practice that feels personal
You might write a private letter, save an agreed-upon screenshot, create a piece of art, participate in a respectful online memorial, contribute to a cause the person valued, or observe a familiar date. A simple moment of silence with friends can be meaningful. Participation is voluntary: a memorial that helps some members may be overwhelming for others.
Qualitative research has documented how social media can support expressions of grief and ongoing relationships with someone who died (Moore et al., 2019; Price et al., 2025). These studies describe people's experiences rather than proving that one memorial activity works best.
What If You Never Met Them or Never Knew Their Real Name?
Some online friendships preserve pseudonymity throughout the relationship. A legal name, photograph, address, or family connection may never have been shared. The friendship can still have been authentic, with its own history, expectations, humor, and trust.
You may mourn the person you knew and also feel uncertainty about other parts of their life. Those two experiences can coexist. You do not need to obtain identifying information to demonstrate that you cared. Respect the boundaries the person established in life, including aliases, gender presentation, personal disclosures, and the identities of other people in their network.
When information is scarce, you can focus on what you actually know: how the person treated others, what you created together, and what their presence meant. Avoid filling gaps with elaborate assumptions or attempts to identify relatives without a compelling, respectful reason.
What If You Are Unsure Whether They Died?
Uncertainty can follow an account deletion, abrupt departure, unexplained silence, or contradictory community reports. In that case, the experience may involve an uncertain absence rather than confirmed bereavement. Treat the death itself as unverified until there is reliable information.
If there are immediate and specific safety concerns, contacting an appropriate existing real-world support or platform safety process may be warranted. Publicly exposing identity information, coordinating a crowd search, or pressuring family members can create harm. A trusted moderator can discourage rumor amplification and document the status of announcements.
If uncertainty persists, acknowledge both the importance of the missing connection and the limits of what can currently be known. It may help to continue ordinary routines, talk about the uncertainty, and avoid repeatedly checking accounts throughout the day. This article addresses grief following a death; uncertainty about an unexplained disappearance deserves its own careful response.
When a Shared Chat, Server, or Game Suddenly Feels Empty
Digital routines create strong reminders. Your brain may still expect the friend to join a voice call, respond to a joke, or appear on a friends list. This habitual expectation can make absence vivid long after the announcement.
A community does not have to choose between continuing as before and permanently shutting down. Moderators can create an optional memorial thread, preserve an appropriate tribute, pause an event, or agree on a transition period. Members who want to keep playing should not be treated as disloyal, and members who cannot yet return should not be pushed.
It can be useful to separate the shared person's role into responsibilities and relationships. Practical tasks—transferring moderation rights, scheduling events, safeguarding community assets—can be handled transparently by authorized people. The emotional meaning of the loss deserves its own space.
How Online Communities Can Mourn Respectfully
A thoughtful community response begins with verification, consent, and clear communication. Choose one official announcement channel; say what is confirmed and what remains private. Allow condolences without requiring disclosure. Make participation in commemorative events optional and define moderation rules against harassment, speculation, and graphic material.
A message can acknowledge the death, share a family-approved remembrance, give a clear place for memories, and explain who will answer operational questions. If the family has asked for privacy, the community can honor that request while still recognizing its own grief.
Where possible, establish whether relatives or the deceased's authorized representative consent to public memorials, use of images, fundraising in the person's name, and the sharing of private messages. Death does not turn confidential correspondence into unrestricted community property. A well-intentioned tribute can also expose sensitive information that the person had deliberately kept separate from their online life.
Guidance for moderators and administrators
Moderators can create boundaries that preserve a welcoming community: avoid unverified causes of death; prohibit doxxing and impersonation; do not repost private medical or crisis details; remove scams and unauthorized donation links; set reasonable limits on memorial pings; and provide an option to mute sensitive channels.
When community members disagree about memorial practices, separate disagreements about governance from assumptions about who cared most. Allow several forms of mourning, including private and quiet ones. Volunteers should rotate emotionally demanding moderation duties when possible.
The research on digital grief technologies highlights both potential social support and ethical concerns involving privacy, representation, and reliance on platforms (2026 systematic review). This supports careful design and consent procedures, rather than a presumption that any particular feature has a proven therapeutic effect.
Online Memorials, Messages, and Continuing Bonds
Continuing bonds refers to maintaining an ongoing inner or symbolic connection with a person who has died. It can take the form of memory, values, storytelling, rituals, or messages addressed to the deceased. In an online friendship, the bond may also be connected to digital artifacts, archives, images, game objects, or collective traditions.
A 2025 qualitative meta-synthesis identified multiple ways social media facilitates continuing bonds, including collective grief and maintaining the deceased's social identity. The synthesis drew on seven qualitative studies. Its findings clarify experiences and meanings but cannot establish that messaging the deceased or preserving an account causes better mental-health outcomes.
A recent 2026 interview study involving 24 bereaved people likewise explored the emotional presence of saved digital interactions and the effect of algorithmically reappearing reminders. This is preliminary qualitative evidence. People differ in whether a saved conversation is comforting, painful, or both.
The larger subject of memorial accounts, archives, continuing bonds, and technical design is covered in Digital Memorials and Continuing Bonds, the parent article in this topic cluster.
Should You Keep, Archive, or Delete Messages?
No universal rule determines whether keeping a chat history will help. Some people value reading past messages. Others find repeated exposure exhausting or prefer a period without reminders. You can preserve a private copy where lawful and permitted, move images to a less visible location, mute automated notifications, or decide later.
Before archiving or sharing group communications, consider whether the messages contain personal data about living people, confidential disclosures, or content the deceased expected to remain private. The ability to save an item technically does not settle whether it should be circulated publicly. Group memorials should never require members to submit their private conversations.
Avoid making irreversible account changes in the immediate aftermath unless a safety or security risk requires action. Administrators can document account ownership, permissions, moderation access, and privacy preferences. Platform settings and policies differ, so decisions should be based on the actual service and authorized account holders.
Why Social Media Reminders Can Hurt or Comfort
Platforms may resurface old photos, anniversaries, messages, or friend suggestions long after a death. A reminder can bring warmth and connection on one day and distress on another. The emotional impact depends on timing, content, control over notifications, and the person's wider circumstances.
The 2026 research on digitally mediated continuing bonds discusses these algorithmic encounters (Malik, 2026), while studies of Facebook mourning have documented varied patterns of visiting deceased friends' profiles (Blower and Sharman, 2021). Observed associations between posting about grief and higher distress do not establish that posting caused that distress: people experiencing more distress may also be more likely to post.
You can adjust notification settings, mute particular keywords, temporarily leave a server, or ask a moderator for a quieter participation option. You do not need to erase all memories in order to protect your attention and sleep.
Memorials in Games and Virtual Worlds
For gaming communities, meaningful places may include a virtual base, island, guild hall, server map, shared avatar, or location where people regularly gathered. A digital vigil, collaborative construction, or designated memorial session can mark a death within the community's shared language.
Research on virtual memorialization is emerging. A 2024 peer-reviewed study of memorials in Animal Crossing described how players adapted game environments to collective mourning. A 2025 qualitative VRChat study explored participants' experiences of avatar-related grief practices and variations by age and context. Neither study proves a universal clinical benefit, and immersive memorials should remain optional.
Do not recreate or publicly display a deceased member's likeness, private voice recordings, or identity without examining consent and potential harm. A commemorative object or message can communicate care without simulating a person's presence.
How Grief Affects Different Members of the Same Community
A community may contain close friends, acquaintances, moderators, new members, and people who only occasionally watched or read the deceased person's work. These individuals have different relationships and therefore different needs. It is possible for a member to feel deeply affected by losing an important social figure despite limited private contact.
Some people will express grief openly; others may use humor, withdraw, focus on logistics, or return quickly to normal interactions. Age, cultural background, disability, past bereavement, religious practices, and community norms also shape expression. Public visibility is a poor measure of attachment, and silence should not be interpreted as indifference.
Moderators and peers can reduce conflict by avoiding a hierarchy of grief. The aim is to protect room for varied experiences while ensuring vulnerable members are supported and harmful content is moderated.
What If the Family Does Not Know About the Online Friendship?
A surviving family may be unaware of the deceased person's online world. Some relatives welcome carefully presented stories showing how the person mattered to others; some prefer privacy or lack the capacity to respond. Approach gently, through an authorized contact where available, and never treat access to the family as a right conferred by online friendship.
If contact is appropriate, offer a brief factual introduction, an expression of sympathy, and a choice about receiving further memories. Avoid sending extensive chat archives or demanding funeral details. Respect a request for no contact. Communities can mourn privately even if their relationships with family members remain separate.
Family members may have different cultural expectations, beliefs about public posting, and concerns about identity disclosure. Working respectfully across those differences helps protect everyone involved.
Supporting a Friend Who Is Grieving Someone Online
Listen for what the relationship meant. Ask about the person's name or preferred username, the activities they shared, and what has become difficult since the death. Recognize the online friend as a meaningful person in the bereaved individual's life.
Practical support can be specific: share a meal, help with schoolwork or an errand, join a quiet call, accompany someone to an appointment, or help them mute notifications. Avoid interrogating the legitimacy of the friendship or insisting that posting a tribute is necessary.
If the bereaved friend wants to remain in the online community, offer companionship there. If they want to leave, support that boundary. See Supporting Someone Who Is Grieving for broader relational guidance.
Children, Teens, and Young Adults Mourning Online Friends
For some children and adolescents, online games and communities are important environments for friendship and belonging. A death may affect their peer world even when adults have little understanding of the platform. Ask calmly what the relationship was, what the child has heard, and whether the information is confirmed.
Explain death accurately and in developmentally appropriate language, without making claims about unknown circumstances. Invite questions, respect privacy when possible, and make sure a trusted adult remains accessible. If the online environment becomes chaotic or frightening, help the young person take breaks and avoid graphic content.
Parents and caregivers should consider the child's age, safety, online contacts, and existing support network. Severe changes in functioning or persistent distress warrant assessment, while ordinary mourning should be met with recognition and care. The English Hub has separate articles on How Children Understand Death and Loss and Grief in Adolescence.
When the Death Was Sudden, Violent, or by Suicide
A sudden or violent death may intensify shock, uncertainty, fear, anger, or attempts to reconstruct what happened. Online rumors can worsen the situation, especially when details are conflicting or graphic. Community announcements should use reliable information, avoid speculation, and preserve the dignity and privacy of the person who died.
When a death was by suicide, do not circulate method descriptions, graphic images, unverified motives, blame narratives, or claims that one conversation caused or could certainly have prevented the death. People may feel guilt or search their message history for signs they missed. Support includes listening, reducing exposure to harmful posts, and encouraging appropriate professional care when needed.
If a grieving person says they are thinking about ending their own life, respond directly, stay engaged, and help connect them with immediate local emergency or crisis support. In the United States, 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available by call or text at 988; elsewhere use local emergency or crisis services. The Hub's dedicated article Grief and Suicidal Thoughts: Support and Safety addresses this topic in greater detail.
How Long Is Online-Friend Grief Supposed to Last?
There is no fixed timetable by which someone must stop missing an online friend. Grief may change in intensity and form over months and years. Birthdays, community anniversaries, launches of a shared game, or the sudden appearance of an old message may reactivate strong feelings without indicating a psychiatric disorder.
Grief is also influenced by earlier losses, the closeness of the friendship, the availability of support, and whether the death is verified or surrounded by unanswered questions. Returning to daily activities and continuing to remember someone are compatible processes. Popular descriptions of five stages of grief are not a required sequence, timetable, or diagnostic framework.
If you want a broader account of normal variation, see How Long Does Grief Last? Timelines, Waves, and Adjustment.
When Grief May Need Professional Attention
Consider speaking with a qualified mental-health professional when suffering is sustained and overwhelming, sleep or functioning deteriorates substantially, existing conditions worsen, or you feel unable to cope safely. Seeking care does not require proving that the relationship was conducted offline. A clinician can ask about the actual nature of the bond and the circumstances of the death.
Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) is a specific clinical diagnosis, not a synonym for intense grief or grief that persists beyond a culturally prescribed date. Under DSM-5-TR, the death of a close person must have occurred at least 12 months earlier for adults or at least 6 months earlier for children and adolescents; additional separation-distress and associated symptoms, significant distress or impairment, and cultural-context requirements must also be met. Under ICD-11, the relevant minimum duration is more than six months, with a persistent and pervasive grief response, emotional pain, impairment, and an assessment that the response clearly exceeds social, cultural, or religious expectations in that context. The diagnostic systems use different symptom specifications and cannot be reduced to the same checklist (American Psychiatric Association, 2024; Prigerson et al., 2021; Eisma et al., 2023).
Online grief is not itself a diagnosis, and a questionnaire result or passage of time alone cannot establish PGD. Clinicians also consider major depressive disorder, PTSD after exposure to traumatic circumstances, adjustment disorder, substance-related problems, and other conditions when clinically appropriate. A person may experience more than one condition; careful assessment is based on the full presentation.
The article Prolonged Grief Disorder: Symptoms and Diagnosis explains formal diagnostic assessment separately from this article's focus on digital friendship and community life.
Grief Counseling, Online Support Groups, and Treatment
Support may come from friends, community members, bereavement groups, counselors, or clinicians. These options serve different needs. A peer-led online forum offers connection and shared experience. Grief counseling can offer structured space to discuss a loss and adaptation. When a diagnosable condition is present, a clinician may recommend an evidence-based treatment tailored to the condition.
A systematic review of online grief-support groups found valued experiences of understanding, connection, and remembrance in qualitative studies, but insufficient high-quality quantitative research to conclude that these groups reliably reduce grief symptoms. A separate 2021 systematic review and meta-analysis of internet-based grief interventions suggested benefits in studied interventions, with evidence-quality and sample-size limitations. Findings about structured interventions cannot simply be transferred to an ordinary group chat or gaming server.
An online friend group can help someone feel less alone, while specialized grief treatment addresses more persistent clinical difficulties. For these distinct questions, read Grief Support Groups: Benefits and Limits and Grief Counseling: What It Is and When It Helps.
A Practical Community Memorial Checklist
A community organizing a memorial can use a short set of priorities: verify the death before presenting it as fact; establish consent for details and images; choose one moderator or contact for announcements; offer voluntary ways to participate; prohibit speculation, impersonation, scams, and graphic content; consider accessibility across time zones; safeguard account access; and decide whether the tribute should remain visible permanently or be reviewed later.
A memorial should serve the people involved and reflect the deceased person's known preferences when possible. It should make space for those who were close, those who only knew the person publicly, and those who prefer to grieve elsewhere. The existence of a permanent channel, virtual monument, or public archive is a community design choice, not an established clinical requirement.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it normal to cry over an online friend I never met?
Yes. Tears, sadness, or numbness can follow the death of someone who was emotionally important, regardless of whether you met face to face. The duration or intensity of crying by itself does not establish a disorder.
What do I say when somebody tells me their gaming friend died?
Acknowledge the person and the relationship. You might say, "I'm sorry. Tell me about them if you want to." Ask whether the bereaved person would prefer company, practical help, or space. Avoid minimizing the connection.
Should I attend an online funeral or virtual memorial?
Participate if it feels right and the event is appropriate and consent-based. You can grieve privately, contribute a message, join briefly, or skip the event. Public attendance is not a measure of how much someone mattered.
How can I honor an online friend without knowing their family?
Write a private remembrance, share a community-approved tribute, continue a collaborative tradition, or support a cause they valued. Keep identifiable personal information and private conversations confidential.
What if a moderator deletes the deceased person's account or memorial?
Losing access to digital reminders can be upsetting. Ask respectfully whether a privacy-conscious archive or separate tribute is possible, but recognize that platform policies, account ownership, safety, and family wishes may constrain what can be preserved.
Why does my grief feel stronger when I log in?
The platform contains cues linked to the friendship: familiar usernames, conversations, music, places, and routines. You can limit exposure temporarily, adjust notifications, or return gradually with support. There is no required pace of reentry.
Can an online bereavement group replace psychotherapy?
Peer groups can provide companionship and understanding, but their effectiveness as treatment is not firmly established. If grief is severely impairing or another mental-health condition is present, assessment and appropriate professional treatment may be useful.
Does prolonged grief disorder apply when the deceased was an online-only friend?
Clinical assessment concerns the person's closeness to the deceased, symptoms, duration, impairment, and cultural context; the digital medium alone does not decide the question. A clinician would evaluate the relationship and full criteria rather than classify the grief based on whether the two people met offline.
Is an AI recreation of a deceased online friend a good memorial?
Simulations raise separate questions about informed consent, privacy, misrepresentation, distress, and ongoing attachment. Evidence about benefits and risks is emerging, and a memorial need not reconstruct the deceased as an interactive persona. Communities should not create or distribute an imitation without careful authorization and ethical review.
Related Articles
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2024). DSM-5-TR update: Prolonged Grief Disorder differential diagnosis. Official DSM-5-TR update.
Austin, J. (2024). We are gathered here today: Sites of mourning and bereavement in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, 16(3), 347. https://doi.org/10.1386/jgvw_00109_1.
Blower, J., & Sharman, R. (2021). To grieve or not to grieve (online)? Interactions with deceased Facebook friends. Death Studies, 45(3), 167–181. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2019.1626937.
Eisma, M. C. (2023). Prolonged grief disorder in ICD-11 and DSM-5-TR: Challenges and controversies. Peer-reviewed article.
Fu, M., Xiao, H., Ruan, H., Lin, Y., & Dong, X. (2025). Grieving in virtual worlds: Emotional processes and generational differences in avatar-based memorials on VRChat. Frontiers in Psychology, 16, 1669020. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1669020.
Liang, A. G., Tan, K. H. E., See, J. C., & Kuek, J. H. L. (2025). A scoping review on the use of social media for personal grief. Death Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/07481187.2025.2585928.
Liu, W.-M., Forbat, L., & Anderson, K. (2019). Death of a close friend: Short and long-term impacts on physical, psychological and social well-being. PLOS ONE, 14(4), e0214838. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214838.
Malik, S. (2026). Digitally mediated continuing bonds: Social media, grief, and relational continuity after death. OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228261479913.
Moore, J., Magee, S., Gamreklidze, E., & Kowalewski, J. (2019). Social media mourning: Using grounded theory to explore how people grieve on social networking sites. OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying, 79(3), 231–259. https://doi.org/10.1177/0030222817709691.
Price, M., Steffen, E. M., & Kamp, K. S. (2025). How do people use social media to maintain continuing bonds in bereavement? A qualitative meta-synthesis. OMEGA—Journal of Death and Dying. https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228251396353.
Prigerson, H. G., et al. (2021). Validation of the new DSM-5-TR criteria for prolonged grief disorder and the PG-13-Revised scale. World Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20823.
Robinson, C., & Pond, R. (2019). Do online support groups for grief benefit the bereaved? Systematic review of the quantitative and qualitative literature. Computers in Human Behavior, 100, 48–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.06.011.
Soh, X. C., Goh, A. Y. H., Koh, P. S., & Hartanto, A. (2026). Digital grief technology to support bereavement: A systematic review of potential benefits and risks. Computers in Human Behavior Reports, 22, 101148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2026.101148.
Zuelke, A. E., Luppa, M., Löbner, M., Pabst, A., Schlapke, C., Stein, J., & Riedel-Heller, S. G. (2021). Effectiveness and feasibility of internet-based interventions for grief after bereavement: Systematic review and meta-analysis. JMIR Mental Health. PubMed 34889769.