Earlier this week Mashable featured a post by Zoe Clark wrote an article about friending trends on Facebook based on recent research by NM Incite. This research suggests that offline relationships drive online friending while offensive remarks and attempts to leverage Facebook relationships to sell goods or services are significant reasons for defriending. The detailed infographic of why people friend and defriend others on Facebook appears at right.
So What?
The number one reason people connect with someone via Facebook is because they already have a relationship with that person. In this manner, Facebook becomes one of many communication channels. While a majority have friended someone who already has one or more mutual friends in common, only small percentages have friended anyone with additional degrees of separation much less no known ties.
- Do you view Facebook primarily as an additional communication channel for people already know? Have you ever deviated from that course beyond friending someone who shares a number of mutual friends?
- How often do defriend people? Do your top reasons for doing so match those in the research study?
- How many people connected to your church are currently among your Facebook friends? Has that number increased, decreased or remained somewhat steady during 2011?