Why are there friends who remove us from Facebook?
The inclusion of new technologies and the internet in the daily life of people has caused important changes in many areas : the way of buying, the way of studying, of entertaining, etc.
In addition, due to the internet, and specifically social networks, there has been a change in the way we relate to others, and has allowed us to meet many new people, people from all corners of the world.
Facebook makes friends ... and enemies
But social networks not only allows us to make new friendships, but also allows us to undo them . An investigation by the University of Colorado Denver (USA) has provided information about why some people delete their Facebook friendships.
As concluded in the study, "They usually do it because they consider that the opinions expressed by the other person about religion or politics are very radical ". This happens more often with high school classmates .
Your political ideology could be the main cause of 'exclusion' on Facebook
The states and opinions of Facebook are an opportunity to show face to the world and are an opportunity to express what we feel and what we think. Since Facebook broke into the lives of all of us, those of us who connect daily to this social network constantly see the status of our contacts updated.
In this sense, we can repeatedly see their opinions on politics, and we see reflected their beliefs and their most ingrained values . We can also get to see their opinions in the different groups or posts, getting to appreciate their radicalism behind his words. It seems, then, that political ideology is a fundamental cause for which we erase some friendships. This can get tired and irritated, causing us to decide to eliminate the contact of our friends.
Causes of being removed from Facebook
The study was published in February 2014, and was conducted by the sociologist Christopher Sibona for the University of Colorado at Denver. It was carried out in two phases: the first part of the study examined the context and profile of the individuals eliminated; and the second phase focused on the emotional responses of people who had been eliminated .
The data was analyzed after conducting a survey in which 1,077 subjects participated via Twitter.
First phase of the study
Which friends are more likely to go through the 'guillotine'?
The results of the first study indicated that the individuals who had been eliminated more frequently were (following the order of greatest to least):
- Friends of the institute
- Other friends
- Friends of friends
- Work buddies
- Friends of common interests
Regarding friends who work in the same company, "we discovered that people eliminate co-workers for actions in the real world rather than comments on social networks" explained Sibona. According to him, one of the reasons why high school friends are the most eliminated in social networks is because their political and religious beliefs may not have been so strong in previous ages. In this stage of life, beliefs become stronger, there being more likelihood of offending friends.
What are the actions on Facebook that can irritate your friends?
Regarding the content of comments or statements, the study concluded that the reasons shown below were the most common to eliminate a Facebook friend:
- By posting habitually unimportant and inconsequential things.
- For writing very radical opinions on political or religious issues.
- For making racist, sexist or unpleasant comments.
- For posting constantly about private life: what they are eating, how happy they are with their partner or what they are going to do at night.
Second phase of the study
How do we feel when someone erases us?
Regarding the second phase of the study, that is, the emotional reactions of the individuals that are eliminated from Facebook, Sibona found a variety of emotions associated with this fact. The most common are the following:
- I'm surprised
- I do not care
- It makes me laugh
- I feel sad
It should be noted that depending on the degree of friendship between the two actors (the one that eliminates and the one eliminated), The closer the friendship relationship is, the more sad it feels to have been eliminated . Therefore, "being sad" can be used as a predictor of closeness in the relationship. Finally, the study also concluded that eliminating someone from Facebook occurs more frequently among friends than among acquaintances.
It may interest you: "Depersonalization and (in) communication in social networks"Bibliographic references:
- Sibona, C., (2014) Unfriending on Facebook: Context Collapse and Unfriending Behaviors. 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 1676-1685 //doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/HICSS.2014.214
- Sibona, C., (2014) Facebook Fallout: The Emotional Response to Being Unfriended on Facebook. 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 1705-1714
- //doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/HICSS.2014.218
