Hold your tongue to keep your Facebook friends

by Steven Mostyn - Dec 20 2011, 14:57

If you’ve ever noticed people dropping off your list of Facebook friends without personal explanation, chances are you’ve pushed said ‘friend’ away by saying something out of turn.

That’s according to a new study of social network users conducted by NM Incite, which has found that “offensive comments” and a general lack of knowledge regarding a person are the leading reasons why people suffer the indignity of being ‘unfriended’.

The study, which covered some 1,800 users, also revealed that questionable posted content as opposed to posting frequency was more likely to get a friend bumped on Facebook.

Specifically, 23 percent of those polled said they would ‘unfriend’ someone due to “depressing comments”, while 14 percent said “political comments” would sour a friendship, and six percent said that someone posting too frequently would raise a red flag.

The study also found that 82 percent of Facebook fans ‘friend’ fellow users they already know in real life, and 60 percent connect with mutual friends.

Going beyond established association, eight percent of users actually base their ‘friend’ selections on physical appearance, and seven percent approve a friend request based on the “quality of the photo” shown on a profile.

Amazingly, seven percent said they simply ‘friend’ anyone they can in order to artificially boost the amount of friends they appear to have.

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