Ever wondered who’s most likely to get the chop on Facebook? Wonder no longer, because researchers from the University of Colorado Denver have been looking into the most common unfriendings on the social network.
By conducting surveys, the computer scientists were able to work out who most commonly gets the elbow. Their results, presented at the 47th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences earlier this year, show that the most unfriended acquaintances are old high school friends. The top five runs like this:
- High School friends
- Other
- Friend of a friend
- Work friends
- Common interest friend
And why do they get the chop? Christopher Sibona, one of the researchers, explains to PhysOrg:
“The most common reason for unfriending someone from high school is that the person posted polarising comments often about religion or politics. The other big reason for unfriending was frequent, uninteresting posts.
“We found that people often unfriend co-workers for their actions in the real world rather than anything they post on Facebook.”
Interestingly, the researchers also looked into how people responded to being unfriended, asking them about their emotional reactions. The most common responses, in order, were:
- I was surprised
- It bothered me
- I was amused
- I felt sad
For your own sanity, it’s worth embracing number 3. But if you need a little more help than that, read our guide to dealing with unfriending. [PhysOrg]
Picture: Oli Dunkley