Facebook Unfriending Could Have Serious Real-Life Effects, Study Shows
Facebook unfriending could seem harmless, but it could have serious real-life consequences, according to a study.
Christopher Sibona, who authored the study, said that people might think that they can have fun on social networks. However, what you do on those sites can have serious ramifications on a person's life.
Sibona had done the study when he had his doctoral studies in Computer Science and Information Systems Program at the University of Colorado Denver Business School.
While the study showed that 50 percent of the unfriended people would not avoid the person in real life, 40 percent said that they would. The remaining 10 percent were unsure of what they would do.
The researchers also found that women are more likely to avoid the person who unfriended them than the men, according to a report on the Business Daily News.
The study's results highlighted how social media relationships affect people in real life, and they were quite severe.
Facebook unfriending had people feeling that they do not belong, losing control, and having low self-esteem.
The social media breakup also put the respondents in a worse mood.
A CBC report said that it is easy and fast to amass friends and followers on social networks; you either send out a friend request or approve those who sent a request.
Unlike in real life, wherein a person rarely hits it off with someone immediately, a relationship offline has to be gradually built.
But the study shows that some egos get bruised when they get deleted digitally even when they are not that really close to the person either online or offline.
And, by contrast to Facebook unfriending, when people get apart in real life, or when someone drifts away, people let it happen and stops interacting with each other.
This, according to the University of Waterloo associate professor Aimee Morrison.
Morrison, who works in digital humanities, added that unfriending someone on Facebook is like telling that you do not like them, that you do not want to see any of their stuff or posts anymore.
According to Vox, 17.85 percent of the people who get unfriended is from a person's high school, especially after they graduate and move on to college or work. It is after high school that people drift away from each other.
While 8.8 percent of the people who get unfriended on Facebook are romantic partners, this is not surprising because not many people can remain friends with their exes even in real life.
Other reasons people get unfriended on Facebook are common interest, work, a friend of a friend, college, family member, internet, and others.
Results of Sibona's study also showed that people should avoid politics, pets, and promotions if they don't want to get unfriended on Facebook.
The top types of posts that can lead to someone getting unfriended are unimportant, inappropriate, too many posts, political, religious, job-related, promotion-related, sex-related, swear words, sexists, and racists.
Who would have thought that Facebook unfriending could have dire consequences on a person's real life?
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