Turning off rude ‘friends’

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By Ashly Riches

(Illustration by Tim Leddick)
(Illustration by Tim Leddick)

“Glad to see you’re having fun at the movies. Thanks for inviting me. #sub”

Comments like this one are prevalent on social media sites, such as twitter. Studies show people are getting more rude and argumentative online.

A survey, conducted by VitalSmarts in 2013, shows that almost 80% of social media users report their “friends” having no qualms about being impolite in the virtual world. Two out of every five users stop communicating with people through social media due to fights.

“Unnecessary fighting and drama starts over social media, on Facebook and Twitter especially,” Miranda Shaw, junior, said.

The fighting doesn’t end with Facebook and Twitter, however. Every social media site was included in this 2,698 person survey.

“On Instagram, you can see other peoples’ pictures, and if you see they didn’t invite you to hang out, it makes you mad,” Emily Unger, freshman, said.

With so many people sharing the details of their lives online, social media sites are strife with disagreements and the potential for dissent. These disagreements and fights can impede on face-to-face relationships. That same study shows that for every five social media users confronted with an online fight, at least one has reduced or broken off contact with that person in the physical world.

“When one of my best friends stopped calling me and I asked her about it, she said she was too busy. But I was seeing her posts on Facebook, claiming she was bored and needed someone to hang out with, so I knew she was lying. The only way I could talk to her was through Facebook messaging, and it felt like she used Facebook to get me out of her personal life,” one Coronado student said.

Despite these setbacks to relationships, Facebook has just celebrated its tenth anniversary, and there are 288 million active users on Twitter.