Facebook already controls our lives.And now it’s controlling our deaths.Stephanie Bemister, the sister of recently deceased journalist William Bemister, sent Facebook a copy of Bemister’s death certificate along with a formal request to remove his profile after he died in November, according to the blog AllFacebook.But Facebook refused and sent Bemister a letter stating:”Per our policy for deceased users, we have memorialized this person’s account. This removes certain more sensitive information and sets privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or find the person in search. The Wall remains so that friends and family can leave posts in remembrance.”Facebook claims it keeps a deceased member’s profile open out of respect for loved ones.But Bemister certainly wasn’t feeling the love.”I am sickened by them [Facebook],” Bemister said in a letter posted on The Consumerist. “My two daughters are heartbroken as his face still remains on their own member’s page … It is horrible. How can Facebook be so insensitive to the wishes of a deceased member’s family? I have never in my life felt so betrayed, angry and sickened.”Facebook complied last month and deleted Bemister’s account.This isn’t the first time Facebook has kept a dead member’s profile alive.In the past, Facebook’s policy was to maintain deceased members’ profiles 30 days following their death and then delete the account.But after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, this all changed.Friends and family of the victims protested that Facebook should keep the deceased students’ profiles active, according to a 2007 USA Today article.Facebook soon thereafter revised its policy. Instead of having a 30-day freeze on a dead member’s account, those dead members will now be permanently frozen in Facebook time, or as Facebook calls it, “memorialization.”Facebook’s current policy prevents the adding of friends and hides certain features such as contact information, but still allows friends to see photo albums, videos and enter wall posts.It’s understandable why Facebook would change its policy because some people find comfort in looking at pictures of their deceased loved ones.It’s a way for people to stay connected with someone they have lost and serves as constant reminder of the good times they had and the memories they made together.But not everybody wants this constant reminder.Some people may not want to relive these memories yet. It takes time to grieve and heal, and having a dead friend or family member’s picture pop up on your mini-feed is not the easiest way to move on.And Facebook’s sole purpose is to be a networking site, not a gravesite.It’s supposed to “help you connect and share with the people in your life,” according to its homepage.And while deceased loves ones will always be a part of your life, that doesn’t mean they have to be a part of your virtual life.Their profiles are still there.It’s as if these people never died and they are just taking a little longer than usual to update their status.For some reason, people insist on leaving “happy birthday” wall posts every year that dead person was supposed to become one year older and one year wiser.They’re not going to receive messages in heaven or hell or wherever you think they may end up, because there’s no Facebook after death.So when my time comes to head off to that Facebookless house in the sky, just delete my account — because I don’t want to be buried in a Net cemetery.Drew Belle Zerby is a 22-year-old mass communication major from Vidalia. —-Contact Drew Belle Zerby at [email protected]