You’ve Unfriended Someone, Haven’t You?

So you’ve done it, haven’t you?

You’ve unfriended someone on a social network, I mean.

I’m not just talking about that annual culling of the herds. That broad-sweeping cut down to your real friends in an attempt to make Facebook or Twitter a more authentic or reasonable endeavor. I’m talking about that time someone made you livid and you could not bear to read their ridiculous status updates one more time.

So you ex-ed ’em.

Well, the good news is you’re not alone.

According to a recent study Reuters published last week, two in five users have dropped the hammer on an online friendship after someone got under their skin online. And one in five had sliced face-to-face time with someone in real life due to virtual mishap.

Perhaps that’s why Jimmy Kimmel’s campaign called National Unfriend Day (see vid below) gained such popularity. (My favorite quote is when he asks. “Do you really want to read what an emotionally unstable person is doing every 15 seconds of their life?”)

A Word From Kimmel

And perhaps that’s why these snarky e-cards about unfriending get so much circulation too (not by me, I’m not a regular e-card poster. Don’t unfriend me.)

Admit It. Some of These Thoughts Have Crossed Your Mind.

But back to seriousness and the study referenced earlier.

“The world has changed and a significant proportion of relationships happen online but manners haven’t caught up with technology,” Joseph Grenny, co-chairman of corporate training firm VitalSmarts that conducted the survey, told Reuters.

As for the alteracations?

“People seem aware that these kinds of crucial conversations should not take place on social media yet there seems to be a compulsion to resolve emotions right now and via the convenience of these channels,” said Grenny.

So what about it? Do social media friendships follow the same rules as real life ones? How long do you endure with a chronic over-sharer or pathological poster of pet photos? What makes you unfriend online?