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Modern Bereavement: A Model for Complicated Grief in the Digital Age

Authors:

Anna N. Baglione,

Maxine M. Girard,

Patrick C. ShihAuthors Info & Claims

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Paper No.: 416, Pages 1 - 12

https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3173990

Published: 21 April 2018 Publication History

Abstract

The experience of grief and death is an inevitable part of life. Grief, a natural response to death, can be a challenging and emotionally taxing journey. Bereaved individuals often feel lost in a fog, unaware of resources available to them and unsure of which resources could be useful for supporting their healing process. Complicated grief, a more intense form of grief that extends beyond six months following the death of a loved one, presents both a unique challenge and a design opportunity for the HCI community. In this work, we present the results of a survey and interview study on the technological practices of complicated grievers. Based on themes found in the data, we propose a new model for complicated grief in the digital age, consisting of the following phases: Fog, Isolation, Exploration, Immersion, and Stabilization. We then present a set of design considerations for designers seeking to create tools for complicated grievers navigating their unique grief journeys.

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Index Terms

Modern Bereavement: A Model for Complicated Grief in the Digital Age
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

CHI '18: Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 2018

8489 pages

ISBN:9781450356206

DOI:10.1145/3173574

General Chairs:
Regan Mandryk
University of Saskatchewan, Canada
,
Mark Hancock
University of Waterloo, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Mark Perry
Brunel University London, UK
,
Anna Cox
University College London, UK

Copyright © 2018 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Published: 21 April 2018

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CHI '18: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

April 21 - 26, 2018

Montreal QC, Canada

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CHI '18 Paper Acceptance Rate 666 of 2,590 submissions, 26%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637346
Albers RSadeghian SLaschke MHassenzahl M(2023)Dying, Death, and the Afterlife in Human-Computer Interaction. A Scoping Review.Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581199(1-16)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581199
Xygkou ASiriaraya PCovaci APrigerson HNeimeyer RAng CShe W(2023)The "Conversation" about Loss: Understanding How Chatbot Technology was Used in Supporting People in Grief.Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581154(1-15)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581154
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