The Unfriending Frenzy

I’ve been on Facebook since 2009. In those 12 years I never “unfriended” anyone until this last year. I was curious about the trend of “unfriending” over the last few years. Not an easy task to find good information. For myself I have never seen such widespread animosity among people to the point of outright verbal battle. It seems to me that people feel more comfortable than ever with saying things on posts that I believe they NEVER would say face to face. To me social media has become ANTI-SOCIAL media to a degree that has affected friendships I’ve had for decades and even includes family members!

First some interesting Facebook facts from a Pew Research Study.

• 57% of adults in America are on Facebook
• 73% of Americans between the ages of 12 & 17 are on Facebook, but it seems like Instagram is quickly becoming their preference.
• 64% of Facebook users visit the website daily
• Women are more likely to say that viewing photos is the major reasons they use Facebook. 
• Men primarily enjoy reading status updates and for keeping up with news and events.
• About half of all adults on Facebook have more than 200 friends……. that’s a lot of potential unfriending!!
• Liking and Commenting are the primary actions most people utilize……thus the potential for confrontation.

And now for the good stuff…….LOTS of people have been ASKED by someone else to UNFRIEND someone!! Among Facebook users ages 18 to 29, 19% have been asked to unfriend someone in their network! 35% of the requests to unfriend came from other friends, 23% of the requests came from current spouses or partners and 12% of the requests came from former spouses or partners. Pew didn’t ask what percent actually followed through with an “unfriending”. A 2016 study by Forbes found that Democrats are 3 TIMES more likely to unfriend you on anti-social media! 13% of Americans reported blocking or unfriending a “friend” on social media because of their political postings! I wasn’t able to find more current figures but I imagine it’s MUCH higher than that in 2020. Some specifics:

• Women are twice as likely as men to report removing people from their online social circle because of the political views they expressed online.
• 30% of Democratic women reported that they blocked, unfriended or stopped following someone due to their political views vs. 14% of Democratic men.
• Republican men and women are about equally as likely to say they blocked, unfollowed, or unfriended someone on social media because of political posts (10% vs. 8%, respectively).

It’s not just over politics that people are unfriending each other either. Covid has also caused an EPIDEMIC of unfriending!! Digital Third Coast performed a survey of over 2000 respondents, average age was 39, while 51% were male and 49% were female.  44% were Democrat, 30% were Republican and 27% were independent. Here are some of the findings:

• 69% said “social media causes more harm than good when it comes to getting accurate COVID-19 information.”
• At least 24% of respondents said they’d been in a fight with someone on social media over the virus. Another 21% said those fights were with friends or family members.
• 54% of respondents said they’d cut back on the news consumption to cope with a myriad of emotions — from anger to anxiety — resulting from COVID-19. The public infighting between family members and friends might be a reflection of that.

Finally I found this from civicscience.com . Here is the link to the article https://civicscience.com/the-majority-of-americans-are-also-social-distancing-from-politics/

• 61% of social media users have unfollowed, unfriended, or blocked a connection on social media because of that person’s political views or posts.
• Conservatives are the least likely to unfriend someone based on their political content (49%).
• Liberals are the MOST likely to unfriend someone based on their political content (70%)
• CivicScience last looked at this data in the beginning of 2018 when 36% of Americans had unfriended someone because of politics. That number is now at 39% !!

So there you have it. My suspicions are confirmed. Politics and Covid have caused an epidemic of “unfriending” and “blocking”. I personally hate to do it but I have for about 6 previous “friends”. Why?……they became REALLY uncivil and offensive and in some cases simply abusive. What are some reasons to NOT unfriend an abusive person? I tell people I WANT everyone to see how irrational some people have become. Unfriending and blocking means many people will see and read only what they want to see and read…..which I guess is ok….but kind of like living in a bubble.