Courtney Purvin got a shock when she visited Facebook last month. The site was suggesting that she get back in touch with an old family friend who played piano at her wedding four years ago.
The friend had died in April.
“It kind of freaked me out a bit,” she said. “It was like he was coming back from the dead.”
Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, knows a lot about its roughly 500 million members. Its software is quick to offer helpful nudges about things like imminent birthdays and friends you have not contacted in a while. But the company has had trouble automating the task of figuring out when one of its users has died.
That can lead to some disturbing or just plain weird moments for Facebook users as the site keeps on shuffling a dead friend through its social algorithms.
Facebook says it has been grappling with how to handle the ghosts in its machine but acknowledges that it has not found a good solution.
A few months ago FB suggested I get back in touch with Michael Spencer (“Internet Monk”) by sending him a personal message. That was sort of weird.
When my 18-year-old son Alex died accidentally last summer, his Facebook page was memorialized and was a great comfort for many. My wife continues to both receive and give comfort to Alex’s many friends through using Facebook.
– The Rev. John Heidengren