Abstract

The expansion of social media smartphones cloud storage and digital communication has created a new dimension of human existence in which individuals can continue to have an online presence after physical death. In India families increasingly encounter preserve and reinterpret the digital identities of deceased relatives through social-media profiles photographs videos messages emails and other digitally stored materials. These surviving digital traces can become important resources for mourning remembrance family identity and intergenerational storytelling. This paper examines the phenomenon of the “digital afterlife” and explores how Indian families socially use the online identities of deceased persons. Using a qualitative secondary-data and interpretive approach the study draws upon scholarship on digital memory death studies mediated mourning identity and online memorialization. The analysis suggests that digital traces can transform private memories into persistent social objects