We've all been there. Things are apparently going along just fine when you inadvertently realise you've been unfriended on Facebook.  Was it one baby picture too many, or that humorous political link that fell foul? 

Since 2010 computer science PhD student Christoper Sibona has been examining why people unfriend each other on Facebook, and he's just released his final study.

High School dropout

Sibona found that by far the largest group to unfriend each another were users who had attended the same high school (17 per cent).

Perhaps not a shock, considering when Facebook launched adding former high school classmates was the norm, although the novelty seems to be well and truly wearing off. 

Love and other catastrophes

The other most common groups that unfriended each other includes Work Colleagues (11 per cent), Friends of Friends (10.75 per cent), Romantic Partners (8.8 per cent) and Family Member (5.25 per cent).

Don't mention the war

Sibena also found in previous studies that uninteresting and offensive behaviour were the top reasons people unfriended each other.

Being dull is apparently the greatest crime on Facebook, with 64 per cent of respondents citing it as the reason they unfriend.

This is followed by inappropriate posts (44 per cent), too many posts (34 per cent) and political and religious posts (26 and 20 per cent respectively). 

it's worth noting that Sibena's percentages total more than 100, because respondents could cite multiple responses for an unfriending event. 

Friend fail

Finally, Sibena found that users who initiate a friend request are far more likely to be unfriended than those that accepted the offer (68.2 per cent to 31.8 per cent).

Final call

While Sibena's findings relate to personal users and not brand Pages, it's worth keeping in mind which activity resounds with, and annoys, your followers the next time you're crafting that status update.

To find out more visit ieeexplore.ieee.org.

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