Facebook "pruning" an increasing craze, claims study

Are your social networking friends really real friends? A new study seems to suggest that, for most of us, they are not. Facebook "defriending," post-deleting and photo tag removals appear to be escalating trends on the site. Article resource: Facebook "defriending" on the rise

Friends you do not want to friend

The study, released Friday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, claims 63 percent of Facebook customers have unfriended other customers. Another 44 percent admit to deleting comments made by others. Thirty-seven percent have deleted tags on photographs. Pew calls the trend "pruning."

Mary Madden was the report’s creator and a senior research specialist at Pew. She said:

"Social network users are becoming more active in pruning and managing their accounts."

About 30 percent of Facebook users defriended somebody in 2009. That was the last time the Pew survey had been time. This time, it was done in Could 2011 by surveying 2,277 adult Facebook consumers.

Wanting more trust

Online privacy has become a very significant thing for a lot of people. In fact, individuals are giving up online socializing for more privacy on the internet.

Madden wrote:

"Social science researchers have long noted a major disconnect in attitudes and practices around information privacy online. When asked, people say that privacy is important to them; when observed, people’s actions seem to suggest otherwise."

But that's changing. The report indicated that users are becoming increasingly concerned about privacy issues on the social networks. A full 58 percent of users employ the highest privacy settings so that only their friends can see their personal specifics. The craze is even stronger among women. Sixty-seven percent of female customers employ the highest privacy settings. Only 48 percent of men do.

Including all age groups

And that seems to be the case across all age groups. Twenty-two percent of users 18 to 29 employed high-level privacy settings. The figure was 23 percent for customers age 65 and over.

It was explained in the report:

"The choices that adults make regarding their privacy settings are also virtually identical to those of teenage social media users. Private settings are the norm, regardless of age."

Younger customers, however, are still quicker to defriend others than are seniors. When broken down by ages, 71 percent of young adults have done so, as opposed to 41 percent of seniors.

Some regret on Facebook

Many people regret things they have put on Facebook. In fact, 11 percent of customers say they regret things. More men regret it than women though as 8 percent of women shoed regret and 15 percent of men showed it.

Homicide over Facebook defriending

Many individuals can get very offended when they are defriended on Facebook. This is regardless of the truth that a lot of people know their “real” friends in person are not the same as ones on Facebook.

Earlier this month, a couple in Tennessee, Billy Clay Payne, Jr. and Billie Jean Hayworth, were murdered after they chose to defriend a female, Janelle Potter. They were killed by the woman's father, Marvin Enoch "Buddy" Potter Jr. and an accomplice known as Jamie Lynn Curd.

Mike Reece is the Johnson County Sheriff. He spoke about the defriended woman:

"Once you've crossed her, you've crossed her father, too."

Sources

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