Bereaved Profiles, A Qualitative Study of the Representation of Loss in the Cyberspace

Death has always been a major concern of humanity. However, encountering unexpected deaths is considered to have been one of the most difficult encounters of human beings throughout history, although this cultural and social encounter has been time-and-place-dependent. On this basis, this study has been designed to explore the process of the bereaved people's presence in the cyberspace and to achieve a deep understanding of the role of cyberspace in the bereaved people's lives using the qualitative approach and grounded theory. The required data were collected using in-depth interviews with some bereaved people who had lost one of their immediate family members for a time period ranging from four months to four years. The collected data were then conceptualized and analyzed using the three open, axial and selective coding processes. The findings showed that the central phenomenon is the bereaved profiles, which represent the occurrence of a loss and virtual memorials. Faced with the bereaved profiles, the bereaved people experience and perceive outcomes by adopting strategies such as deconstruction of virtual sociability. In this way, they ultimately rethink the loss in the cyberspace.