Reasons why people unfriend their friends on Facebook

• Facebook allows people to unfriend someone without notifying them
• A Facebook user unfriends friends because of personality and trust issues

Most people nowadays already have a Facebook account to easily communicate with others, share insights and experiences, and announce milestones and achievements to the public. It is another way to run a business and have online friends from other parts of the world.

But why do users find the need to unfriend their friends on Facebook?

A study revealed by Sibona and Walczak (2011) shows that the main reason why people unfriended people on Facebook because of frequent posts, game requests and unimportant content while for offline reasons was alienation, personality, and trust issues.

“We found that people often unfriend co-workers for their actions in the real world rather than anything they post on Facebook,” Sibona said

Another research by Light and Cassidy (2014) suggests people clean up their friends list to improve their connection to other contacts or to their close friends.

Pena and Brody’s study also revealed that “social attractiveness of the individuals’ influence” is a possible cause to be unfriended, the same with friends with insulting and threatening behaviour.

Science Daily also explains that knowing you’re being unfriended by someone who was once your close friend would cause one to feel unhappy especially those who closely monitor their Facebook friends.

https://twitter.com/aaambivert/status/1135524460524478464

Netizens on social media also share the reason they unfriend some of their friends on Facebook.

https://twitter.com/mj_exceptional/status/1135910469397467136

https://twitter.com/faneynainday/status/1135565316627427330

https://twitter.com/willsansbury/status/1136490519142588419

https://twitter.com/morga__licious/status/1097243768401608704

I have started to trim the number of my friends on Facebook. I managed to reduce from 4960 to 3310.. My target is remain at least with a 1,000. If I delete you by mistake please let me know. Some people are too dear to unfriend.

— NkanduMwandu (@nkandu_mwandu) June 5, 2019