When it comes to fostering social connectivity and helping people maintain close-knit human bonds, Facebook appears to be a dual-edged sword. On the one hand, previous research has found that excessive use of Facebook exacerbates feelings of perceived social isolation and loneliness under typical, everyday circumstances.
On the other hand, during a crisis, two recent studies report that Facebook social networks can: (1) create a safety net for the bereaved after the death of a loved one; (2) serve a vital role in helping to fortify a sense of community in the aftermath of a catastrophic disaster.

Social Networks Foster Connective Recovery After the Death of a Close Friend

Of course, face-to-face interactions are always going to be an essential part of maintaining the social fabric of "real world" communities and any wholehearted, intimate relationship. That said, social scientists from Boston and Menlo Park recently discovered that Facebook social networks provide a surprising level of emotional support during the grieving process after the death of a close mutual friend.
For this study, William Hobbs, a postdoctoral fellow at Northeastern University's Network Science Institute and visiting fellow at Harvard's Institute for Quantitative Social Science, teamed up with Facebook data scientist Moira Burke, who is based in Menlo Park, California. Burke's research bridges computer science, social psychology, and the study of friendship networks in online communities using large-scale computational analysis and Facebook datasets.
Hobbs and Burke's new study, “Connective Recovery in Social Networks After the Death of a Friend," was published online ahead of print April 24 in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. This is the first large-scale investigation into resilience and recovery within social networks after experiencing the death of a friend.