One in Five Drop Online Friends Over Political Posts
New Pew study shows that people who post about politics tend to be very liberal or very conservative, limiting their appeal.
| Posted Monday, March 12, 2012, at 3:52 PM
Photo by John Moore/Getty Images.
Spouting off about political issues on Facebook and other social sites may be bad for your friend count, according to a new study released Monday by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Eighteen percent of the 2,253 adults surveyed by Pew said they had blocked, unfriended, or hidden a friend on a social network over a political post. It isn’t hard to see why: The Pew survey found that because people who post about politics tend to be very liberal or very conservative, the offending posts are more likely to be out of line with other people’s views. Indeed, only one in four users surveyed by Pew said they "usually" or "always" agree with their friends’ political posts; 73 percent said they only sometimes or never do.
Though most people—roughly two in three—take no action over political posts they disagree with, some 28 percent said they counter with a comment or competing post, another behavior the Pew survey said leads to friends going their own way.
Despite everyone’s apparent distaste for other people’s political views, the survey found most users continue to post their own: 75 percent of adults who use social sites said their friends post political content, and 37 percent said they post at least some of their own.
