(Credit: Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)
Which came first? The unfriend or the unfriending?
This is the disturbingly scientific thought that wracks my sinews on hearing of a devastating piece of research performed by the University of Colorado Denver.
You might have thought that the virtual world is just that, that Facebook is merely a collection of make-believe friends who make believe that they're interesting -- and interested in you.
Allegedly not.
This research insists that if someone unfriends you on Facebook, it alters your behavior -- yes, your real-world behavior.
A fulsome and neurotic 40 percent of people admitted that if someone defriended them on Facebook, they would do everything they could to ensure that they would never be seen with that person in the real world.
Women were, apparently, more inclined to execute avoidance procedures than were men.
You might wonder what could possibly make people behave so radically with respect to what might be a virtual snub, but might also be a slip of the finger or a temporary chilling of the brain.
This research concluded that the most important factor in deciding whether one should instigate avoidance tactics was whether the defriender had talked about the defriending to others.
Yes, perhaps even in real life.
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