A new survey conducted at the Colorado Denver Business School has found that "unfriending" someone on social media can have emotional consequences in real life.
The study, published by the Hawaii International Conference on Social Systems was based on 582 survey responses from Twitter. The results, while unsurprising, reveal important information on how we manage virtual relationships.
Of those surveyed, 40 percent said they would avoid someone who unfriended them on Facebook, 50 percent said they wouldn't avoid the person and 10 percent were unsure. Women were more likely to avoid the person than men.
Christopher Sibona, the doctoral student behind the study found that there were six factors that determined avoiding the person who unfriended them: discussing the unfriending, the emotional response to the unfriending, if the person unfriended believed it was because of offline behavior, the geographical distance between the friends, if the relationship trouble was discussed before the unfriending and the strength of the relationship.
"The number one predictor was whether the person who said the relationship was over talked about it to someone else," said Sibona. "Talking to someone is a public declaration that the friendship is over."
Sibona also authored a 2010 study that found the reasons behind unfriending someone on Facebook. The study revealed the top four reasons to be "frequent, unimportant posts," "polarizing posts usually about politics or religion," inappropriate posts involving sexist, racist remarks" and "boring everyday life posts about children, food, spouses etc."
What emotional effects does being unfriended have on a person? Sibona cites an experiment that found that ostracism on social media can cause lower moods, reduced self-esteem and less feelings of belonging. "People who are unfriended may face similar psychological effects...because unfriending may be viewed as a form of social exclusion," he said. "The study makes clear that unfriending is meaningful and has important psychological consequences for those to whom it occurs."
