The Top Reasons For 'Unfriending' On Facebook

DENVER (CBS4) - With "friending" being so easy on Facebook, why is "unfriending" even easier, and what's the Internet etiquette or "netiquette" when it comes to unfriending?

With over 500 million users worldwide, Facebook has become a global phenomenon, a vast cyber neighborhood where friends meet to share photos, news and gossip. But when those relationships sour, another phenomenon often occurs -- unfriending.

In what may be the first comprehensive study of its kind, a University of Colorado Denver Business School student has revealed the top reasons for Facebook unfriending, who is unfriended and how they react to being unfriended.

"Researchers spend a lot of time examining how people form friendships online but little is known on how those relationships end," Christopher Sibona said.

Sibona is a PhD student in the Computer Science and Information Systems program at CU. His research will be published by the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

"Perhaps this will help us develop a theory of the entire cycle of friending and unfriending," Sibona said.

Facebook has changed social norms, like not having to truly know a person to become friends with or stop being friends with them on Facebook. With Facebook profiles being so easy for the public to access, users should be cautious when it comes to things like posting political and religious beliefs.

But that's not all. Sibona surveyed over 1,500 people for his study and it lists the Top 3 reasons a user is not somebody's Facebook friend. They are as follows:

1. Unimportant posts about the user's life
2. Posting about polarizing topics, such as politics and religion
3. Posting crude or racist comments

The study found 57 percent unfriended a person for online reasons compared to almost 27 percent for offline reasons.

Users should also be aware that employers could be checking their employees' profiles. Businesses are embracing Facebook as a marketing and customer relations tool. And with 55 percent of recruiters using Facebook to find or investigate job candidates, the same kind of posts that could render a user friendless could render the user jobless.

Sibona's complete study will be released by the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences in January.