Facebook users are pruning their friends list Rising numbers of Facebook users are deleting friends as they ‘prune’ their on-line profiles, research has revealed. Two-thirds of those who use the social networking website say they have ‘unfriended’ somebody they do not want to know any more.
Another 44 per cent deleted comments made by other people on their profile page and 37 per cent removed tags of themselves from photos.
The surprising figures show that Facebook users could finally be becoming more selective about who they allow to access their on-line life.
Many people allow their bosses, work colleagues and parents to become ‘friends’ with them on the site - with potentially embarrassing consequences.
The report by US research organisation Pew bore this out: 11 per cent of Facebook users have posted something they regret, with men being twice as likely to do so as women.
Young adults under 29 were most likely to commit an on-line faux pas with 29 per cent admitting such a blunder.
The message now however seems to be getting through and more than half of all users told Pew they make sure their profile is set to the highest security settings.
The report by Mary Madden, senior research specialist at Pew, said that the ‘disconnect’ between the privacy people want on-line and how they actually behave could be ending.
She said: ‘Social network users are becoming more active in pruning and managing their accounts’.
Last year it emerged that more than 100,000 users in Britain have deactivated their Facebook accounts after developing ‘Facebook fatigue’ and concerns over privacy.
A more recent poll found that a quarter of the 30million British users are spending less time on the site than before.
The new study involved quizzing 2,277 adults and was last carried out in 2009 when just 56 per cent had ‘unfriended’ somebody.