How many of your Facebook "Friends" are dead?

Seriously?

I now have three "Friends" who are no longer with us but whose online presences linger as memorials from their loved ones. One of these people only died last week, a relative who was in his early 70s and died after a long illness.

The other two were former workmates who both died young, in their 30s and 40s through cancer and a road accident respectively.

Friends and relatives, especially their children, continue to post sporadically to their pages, telling them how much they miss them, how they still think of them and recognising the anniversaries of major life events, weddings, birthdays and of course theiir days of passing.

This may seem a little weird to people who grew up before the era of the internet. But I actually find it, at least in the cases of the people I know, very respectful and moving. It's the Internet Age's equivalent of lighting a candle in a church in memory of somebody departed.

Naturally, it is a much less private commemoration but then privacy is one of the great victims of our age. And it is possible that as time progresses and more and more users of social media shuffle of this mortal coil, the standard of these commemorations could get dreadfully mawkish and tawdry.

But nevertheless I will continue to drop in occasionally on my old departed friends whose vibrant young faces still beam from their home pages, just to be reminded of them and of what they meant to other people less reticent than I about posting their feelings for all to see.

Have any of you had similar experiences with online friends whose presence is now eternally virtual? What do you think of social media as a shrine to departed loved ones?