Facebook and Friends – why you may be losing them

March 14, 2011
DUNIA Contributor
Posted in Home and Wellbeing

Social media has obviously added yet another dimension to life these days. Sites like Facebook have become regular (if not daily) meeting spots for friends, acquaintances, business associates and even strangers … just like bars, town-squares, plazas and other favorite traditional meeting joints where friends get together.

Facebook with more than 500 million users worldwide seems to have become ‘the place to be’. Unfortunately, just like in real life, certain actions or activities may rub friends the wrong way and get them to “leave”. The truth is, if you have been on Facebook for some time, chances are the ‘Remove from friends‘ button has either been used by you or on you.

Why are we getting ‘unfriended’ on Facebook? According to findings by a University of Colorado Denver Business School student who surveyed more than 1,500 Facebook, here are the top 3 reasons:

1. Frequent, unimportant posts.

Your friends love you, yes; they are glad to be your friends, yes … but no one seems to be particularly interested in a comprehensive, minute by minute account of your life on a daily basis. So let’s just say, if everytime a friend logs into Facebook and finds their news feed flooded by your postings, your are likely to get ‘unfriended’…eventually.

2. Posting about polarizing topics like religion and politics.

Freedom of speech, yes; air your opinion, yes … but ‘friends’ easily get offended when your views differ from theirs on topics that evoke deep emotions. Could it be that not everyone online is particularly interested in an opposite POV (point of view) or in engaging in difficult discussions on sensitive issues? Maybe you should save these for face to face arguments with real-life friends, you know.

3. Inappropriate posts such as crude or racist comments.

When friends get upset or hurt, they walk out the door. This calls for you to be diplomatic at all times and to most importantly be conscious of other people’s feelings. Unlike in real life where folks sometimes have no choice but to deal with what they consider ‘rude’, ‘nasty’, ‘crazy’ or ‘inappropriate’, on Facebook, they are free to leave and never look back.

While most of us come online to be ourselves and have fun, it can become somewhat unpleasant if you get connected with the ‘wrong’ people, which explains why many have actually taken themselves off social media sites as well.

Bear in mind that people get on Facebook for different reasons, some are looking to stay connected with family and real-life friends, others to network with like minded folks and/or build new business links, while others just wanna have fun. Like they say, you’ve got to find your niche and connect with friends who ‘take’ you just as you are. That is exactly what we do on our Facebook page – connect with DUNIA, and enjoy!

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