Why do some friends remove us from Facebook?

The inclusion of new technologies and internet in people's daily lives It has brought about important changes in many areas.: the way to buy, the way to study, to have fun, etc.

In addition, due to the internet, and specifically the social networks, there has been a change in the way we relate to others, and it has allowed us to meet many new people, people from all corners of the world.

Facebook makes friends... and enemies

But social media not only allows us to make new friendships, but also allows us to undo them. An investigation from the University of Colorado Denver (USA) has provided information on why some people delete their friends from Facebook.

As the study concluded, “They usually do it because they consider that the opinions expressed by the other person on religion or politics are very radical.. This occurs more often with high school classmates.

Your political ideology could be the main cause of 'exclusion' on Facebook

Facebook statuses and opinions are an opportunity to show our face to the world and they are an opportunity to express what we feel and what we think. Since Facebook burst into the lives of all of us, those of us who connect to this social network on a daily basis constantly see updates on the status of our contacts.

In this sense, we can repeatedly see their opinions on politics, and we see their deepest-rooted beliefs and values ​​reflected. We can also get to see their opinions in the different groups or posts, coming to appreciate their radicalism behind his words. It seems, then, that the Politic ideology It is a fundamental cause for which we delete some friendships. This can tire and irritate us, causing us to decide to eliminate the contact from our friends.

Causes of being removed from Facebook

The study was published in February 2014, and was carried out by 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 eliminated individuals; and the second phase focused on the emotional responses of people who had been removed.

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 most frequently were (following the order of most to least):

• high school friends
• Other friends
• friends of friends
• Work buddies
• friends of common interests

When it comes to friends who work at the same company, “we found that people delete friends co-workers by real-world actions rather than by comments on social media,” he explained. sibona. According to him, one of the reasons why high school friends are the most deleted on networks social is because their political and religious beliefs may not have been as strong in ages previous. At this stage of life, beliefs become stronger, and there is a greater chance of offending friends.

What are the actions on Facebook that can irritate your friends?

Regarding the content of comments or statuses, the study found that the following reasons were the most common for removing a friend from Facebook:

• For habitually posting unimportant and inconsequential things.
• For writing very radical opinions on political or religious issues.
• For making racist, sexist or unpleasant comments.
• For constantly posting 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 deletes us?

Regarding the second phase of the study, that is, the emotional reactions of individuals who are removed from Facebook, Sibona found a variety of emotions associated with this fact. The most common are the following:

• I'm surprised
• I don't mind
• It makes me laugh
• I feel sad

It must be qualified that depending on the degree of friendship between the two actors (the one who eliminates and the one eliminated), the closer the friendship relationship, the more sadness one feels for having been eliminated. Therefore, "being sad" can be used as a predictor of closeness in the relationship. Lastly, the study also found that deleting someone from Facebook occurs more often 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 http://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
• http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/HICSS.2014.218