General Etiquette > Techno-quette

Facebook Funeral Invite

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libraryliz:
One of my friends recently expressed his surprise that after the death of his aunt, he received a facebook invite to her funeral from her daughter (his cousin).  Of course he expressed his surprise in a facebook status update with a hastily tacked on RIP Aunt XXX in it (which also struck me as a bit off).

Am I old fashioned here?  I couldn't help that thinking if I were to die, I would not want my funeral coordinated by facebook.  I know that often memorial services are mentioned in the newspaper.  Is facebook just replacing the newspaper or is that cheapening someone's death?  (Usually I get facebook invites to pub crawls NOT funerals.)

So I wanted ehell's opinion: Not that different than a newspaper announcement?  Or something that would be best left to a more private sphere (emails seem better to me, an announcement in the church bulletin, that sort of thing)?

Edited to change the title from advice to invite.  Oops!

jimithing:
Was it sent in message form? You can PM people on FB. If that's the case, I don't see anything wrong with it. I have never received an official invitation for a funeral. It's always been word of mouth, etc.

I actually think this would be a good way to get the information out there.

kareng57:
I'm not a Facebook nut either - but yes, I think it could simply be a sign of the times.  Whether or not I like it, it's a fact that these days it's the prime communication method for a lot of people.

Lots of people will look at Facebook much more readily than they'll pick up a newspaper.

kherbert05:
Is the friend reachable by other methods? I have some younger cousins that don't answer the phone, don't answer Texted from family members, when their father was hospitalized - we had to contact them through FB. One got a direct message to call our uncle NOW because of a family emergency. The other we contacted a friend that was local to her through facebook and the friend told her in person.

Surianne:
I've been invited to a few memorials via Facebook and didn't see anything off about it.  I think with a funeral in particular it's time sensitive and so sometimes the easiest way of reaching someone is the best. 

RIP Aunt X in the status update wouldn't bother me either.  I wouldn't do it personally because I'm very private, but some people take comfort when their friends post replies saying "Sorry about your Aunt, she's in my prayers" or whatever.  I've seen at least 4 different Facebook friends post "RIP" or "Remembering X" statuses in the past year. 

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