Facebook memorial or group page?
Besides what we’ve already discussed on this blog in terms of Facebook “memorializing” the profiles of deceased users, there’s another way that the dead are being remembered on the social network — with public groups set up to remember a particular individual.
This differs from the memorialized profile in two key ways. First, these groups are impromptu, created by friends or loved ones after the individual has passed away, as a means of socializing with others that may have known the deceased.
Second, and I think more important, is that they are generally publicly accessible, whereas memorialized profiles are only accessible to those that were previously confirmed friends on Facebook.
What this public accessibility means is that people who may only have just joined Facebook, or old friends that may have lost touch can participate in the memorials. These users would be locked out of the memorialized profile page, which, in a very real way, defeats the purpose of calling it a “memorial” at all.
Here’s one example of a Facebook group created as a memorial to a deceased user: