While Donald and Hillary duke it out in their campaigns, the true battle is waged on the web. You and all your Facebook friends are the soldiers, firing off artillery in the form of photos, videos, and long-winded political speeches. The battle has dragged on for months, and the casualties are countless. Unfriending in the wake of the election has killed a devastating number of Facebook friendships.
According to Facebook, the biggest social media site on the planet, the 2016 presidential election has generated over 5.3 billion posts, comments, and shares, with nearly 110 million Americans participating in the heated debate. Personal accounts reveal that about 99% of Facebook political commentary is infuriatingly bigoted babble originating from the least intelligent members of your social circle.
Unlike your friends and family, unfriending doesn’t pick sides; supporters of both parties have experienced cuts to their friend count. Democrats are more likely to hit the ‘unfriend’ button than Republicans: 9% of supporters of Hillary Clinton have reported ending a friendship versus 6% of Donald Trump’s supporters.
Conversation about the 2016 election has been more divisive than any previous election in living memory, with discussion revolving around allegations of corruption and sexual assault rather than economic or policy issues. These polarizing topics are highly effective in unleashing anger, and those rubbed the wrong way are quick to kill a friendship to exercise their convictions.
Perhaps the most disturbing rhetoric is posted by older family members, whose views seem to be stuck in a time-warp. When a family member is the culprit, we urge users to unfollow before unfriending, effectively hiding the nuisance’s news feed while not cutting ties completely.
According to the authors of “I Don’t Like You Anymore,” a social media study published in the December 2015 Journal of Communication, “Unfriending was more prevalent among more ideologically extreme and more politically active Facebook users,” the study found. “Weak ties were most likely to be broken, and respondents mostly unfriended people because they took offense at what they had posted or disagreed with it.”
While we fully support purging your life of dim-witted political posters who pose a serious threat to your sanity, we don’t recommend eliminating all instances of opposing opinions. Surrounding yourself solely with like-minded people puts you on a fast-track to deluded douchery and a sincere belief that your ideas are brilliant because no one you know disagrees. Considering different viewpoints is crucial in this age of intolerance.
So no matter how painful the political posts, don’t pull the “unfriend” trigger too quickly. After November 8th, we’ll all be united under one piss-poor president, and it’d be nice to have a few friends left when all is said and done.
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