Dump a friend from Facebook at your peril

08 July 2015 - 02:02 By Nivashni Nair

Want to know who no longer wants to see your online status, photos of your last meal, bathroom selfies and Candy Crush score? A new app called "Who deleted me on Facebook" allows users to do just that.The app, for iPhone and Android, is set to shake up online and real friendships as users see exactly who deleted them, making the act of simply pressing the "unfriend" icon no longer subtle.No longer can you lie about deactivating your account to hide deleting a friend because the app also allows users to see if an "ex-friend" is still active.Experts warn that installing it is at your own peril as most unfriended users take it personally.Arthur Goldstuck, founder of technology market research firm World Wide Worx, said the app was the equivalent of tools that show who stops following you on Twitter."Except that it is much more personal. Facebook friends are usually known to you, whereas Twitter followers can be complete strangers. The psychology behind the response to being unfriended is similar, however."People take it personally, and will take it as an offence rather than first consider why the person might have unfriended them."Goldstuck advised users to "take such events as part of the rough and tumble of social media"."It can be a simple factor of someone deciding to clean up their network to include only those with whom they have a certain kind of relationship, or it can even happen by mistake."To dwell on it, or even to go looking for a tool that identifies those who unfriend or unfollow, is giving too much significance to social media," he said."It may be a tool to enhance your social life, but it is not your actual social life. If it is, then you are clearly too intense about it in the first place, and people will naturally want to unfriend you."Jasmin Kooverjee, principal psychologist at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital said a deleted Facebook user would experience similar feelings to being rejected in reality."It could lead to more anger. People will ask: what did I do? Why did this person give me the boot? It creates some sort of paranoia because now there is no direct communication, the fantasy in the mind goes to the worse-case scenario and the paranoia increases tenfold."She said many Facebook users saw the length of their friend list as a sign of their popularity."People do think that if they have lots of friends on their profile that they are well-liked and worthy of relationships so being unfriended can come as a blow," he said...

There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.

From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.

For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.

Already subscribed? Sign in below.



Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.