The internet generation and its representations of death: considerations for posthumous interaction projects

The internet generation massively uses social networks and interacts in these communities with data from dead people. However, how do the death representations of this generation influence its conceptions and practices on posthumous interaction? By means of a quanti-qualitative research, with surveys and data analysis, we aim to understand how the internet generation deals with posthumous interaction in social networks, so as to guide the design of this kind of interaction, considering its specificities. As a contribution to the Human-Computer Interaction area, we expect this concept – posthumous interaction – to be better interpreted by researchers and software developers, in order to design solutions that meet the particular needs of this kind of interaction, as well as the socio-cultural framework behind it. Author