As we enjoy the high tech life with our cool devices, we must also remember that we are connected yes, but it's still human beings that we are connected to. And those human beings have feelings no matter what the device is they are holding.

If you 'unfriend' someone on Facebook, beware! You could lose that person's real-life friendship, too.

Not too many years ago, if you said you were going to unfriend someone, it pretty much meant you were going to make an enemy right? Now it's just a social media fuction, or is it?

A study was done to find out just what happens in the real world around you. Researchers from the University of Colorado discovered that fully 40 percent of those surveyed say they would avoid real-life contact with someone who unfriended them on Facebook.

And women are more likely than men to avoid those who unfriend them. 'People think social networks are just for fun, however, what you do on those sites can have real-world consequences,' says study author Christopher Sibona, who arrived at his conclusions after receiving 600 responses to a survey he posted on Twitter.

Specifically, six factors predicted whether people would avoid a person who unfriended them:

1) If the person who did the unfriending discussed the event later.
2) If the unfriended person had an extremely negative emotional response.
3) If the unfriended person believed the action was because of their offline behavior.
4) If relationship trouble was discussed prior to the unfriending.
5) How strong the person valued the relationship before the unfriending.
6) The geographical distance between the two.

So you want to use caution before unfriending someone. Carefully consider the possible consequences before choosing to do it. Completely consider your relationship with that person.

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