Research says Facebook Unfriending Has Real Life Consequences: Many Avoid 'Unfrienders' in Real Life
Unfriending someone on Facebook may be as easy as
clicking a button, but a new study from the University of Colorado Denver shows
the repercussions often reach far beyond cyberspace.
"People think social networks are just for
fun," said study author Christopher Sibona, a doctoral student in the
Computer Science and Information Systems program at the University of Colorado
Denver Business School. "But in fact what you do on those sites can have
real world consequences."
Sibona found that 40 percent of people surveyed said they
would avoid in real life anyone who unfriended them on Facebook. Some 50
percent said they would not avoid the person and the remaining 10 percent were
unsure. Women said they would avoid contact more than men.
The study, published this month by the Hawaii
International Conference on System Sciences, was based on 582 survey responses
gathered via Twitter. Sibona found six factors that predicted whether someone
would avoid a person who unfriended them.
- If the person discussed the event after it happened.
- If the emotional response to the unfriending was extremely negative.
- If the person unfriended believed the action was due to offline behavior.
- The geographical distance between the two.
- If the troubled relationship was discussed prior to the unfriending.
- How strong the person valued the relationship before the unfriending.
"The number one predictor was whether the person who
said the relationship was over talked about it to someone else," Sibona
said. "Talking to someone is a public declaration that the friendship is
over."
Those who felt they had behaved badly offline and were
being punished for that through unfriending also tended to avoid future
contact.
"The gender finding that showed women tended to
avoid the person who unfriended them more than men was interesting,"
Sibona. "But we really don't know why this is."
The study highlights how relationships are changing as
the world becomes increasingly connected by the Internet. Americans now spend
about 25 percent of their time online using social networks like Facebook which
has over a billion members. The result is that traditional face-to-face communication
is giving way to more remote online interactions which have their own rules,
language and etiquette.
"The cost of maintaining online relationships is
really low, and in the real world, the costs are higher," Sibona said.
"In the real world, you have to talk to people, go see them to maintain
face-to-face relationships. That's not the case in online relationships. "
Also, in the real world when a friendship ends it usually
just fades away, Sibona said. On Facebook, it can be abruptly terminated with
one party declaring the friendship over.
"Since it's done online there is an air of unreality
to it but in fact there are real life consequences," he said. "We are
still trying to come to grips as a society on how to handle elements of social
media. The etiquette is different and often quite stark."
In 2010, Sibona authored a study on why people are
unfriended on Facebook. He found the following top four reasons.
- Frequent, unimportant posts.
- Polarizing posts usually about politics or religion.
- Inappropriate posts involving sexist, racist remarks
- Boring everyday life posts about children, food, spouses etc.
Sibona said his current study demonstrates the power of
being ostracized on social media.
He cited one experiment showing that subjects who experienced
such ostracism had lower moods, less feeling of belonging, less sense of
control and reduced self-esteem.
"People who are unfriended may face similar
psychological effects…because unfriending may be viewed as a form of social
exclusion," Sibona said. "The study makes clear that unfriending is
meaningful and has important psychological consequences for those to whom it
occurs."
Post a Comment