---
title: "Online Grief Support Groups"
description: "In some of the most emotionally wrenching times of their lives, millions of dying and bereaved Americans are receiving great comfort from total strangers online."
date: "2001-11-01"
authors:
  - name: "Lee Rainie"
    job_title: "Former Director, Internet and Technology Research"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/lee-rainie/"
  - name: "Oliver Lewis"
    job_title: "Guest Contributor"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2001/11/01/online-grief-support-groups/"
categories:
  - "Health Policy"
  - "Medicine & Health"
  - "Social Media"
tags:
  - "Communities"
---

# Online Grief Support Groups

In some of the most emotionally wrenching times of their lives, millions of dying and bereaved Americans are receiving great comfort from total strangers online. While the magic of the Net cannot protect us from our mortality, people are finding that it can ease the pain that death can cause, for both the dying and the bereaved.