Out-of-Place Content: How Repetitive, Offensive, and Opinion-Challenging Social Media Posts Shape Users’ Unfriending Strategies in Spain

Abstract

Filtering strategies enable social media users to remove undesired content from their feeds, potentially creating homophilic environments. Although previous studies have addressed the individual-level factors and content features that influence these decisions, few have solely focused on users’ perceptions. Accordingly, this study applies social exchange theory to understand how users socially construct the process of unfriending. Based on 30 in-depth interviews with young Spaniards, we identify a widespread pattern of rejection over repetitive, opinion-challenging, and offensive posts, which we conceptualize as out-of-place content, a type of social media stimulus that hinders substantive online exchanges and challenges users’ understanding of social reality and individual values. This study contributes to current literature on unfriending by suggesting that filtering strategies are implemented gradually when posts overwhelm users’ tolerance threshold. Our findings also suggest that their deployment hinges on the closeness of the relationship between peers and social commitments formed in specific platforms. Future research is needed to assess to what extent the patterns identified in our interviews are present in the overall population.

Public service media for better democracies: Testing the role of perceptual and structural variables in shaping citizens’ evaluations of public television

“…As a legion of studies demonstrated, despite the changes in repertoires and consumption habits, media remain a primary source of knowledge about public affairs and politics, especially for short-term and contextual information (Castro et al, 2021; Jordá et al, 2021; Van Aelst et al, 2017). This positive association between media exposure and political knowledge appears firmer for legacy media and professional online outlets (Castro et al, 2021).…”

The politics of disconnection on social media: A systematic review of politically motivated unfriending

“…Existing research shows that disagreements that violate fundamental moral values, are deemed disrespectful and uncivil, or are perceived to spread falsehood are culpable (Baysha, 2020;Goyanes & Skoric, 2021;Jordá, Cañedo, Bene, & Goyanes, 2021;Neubaum, Cargnino, Winter, et al, 2021;Schwarz & Shani, 2016). In-depth interviews often find participants describing someone they unfriended or a comment that triggered unfriending as "crossing the line"-going beyond what is considered to be the limits of acceptable discourse, such as offensive derogatory terms, hate speech, and comments that stir conflicts with close ones (Baysha, 2020;John & Gal, 2018;Jordá et al, 2021;Schwarz & Shani, 2016). This is accelerated in times of emotionally charged political conflicts as each side considers "some forms of expressions as offensive and unacceptable sacrilege and some words as taboos" (Schwarz & Shani, 2016, p. 393).…”

“…While research often evaluates the democratic implications of social media according to the normative theory of the public sphere, accounts of users' lived experiences consistently suggest that these digital spaces are perceived to be deeply personal, domestic, or at least semiprivate. Participants of in-depth interviews often described social media as an extension of their homes, such as "my home," "my neighborhood," "my wall," and "my world" (Bozdag, 2020;John & Gal, 2018;Jordá et al, 2021;Schwarz & Shani, 2016). Thus, these digital spaces are associated with a strong sense of ownership.…”

“…Moreover, in deciding or justifying whom to exclude, people often follow the norms that govern personal spaces, such as personal interests and preferences, instead of the collectively shared values of the public sphere. In-depth interview studies consistently find participants citing the violations of personal preferences, rather than disagreement, as the reason for unfriending (Goyanes & Skoric, 2021;John & Gal, 2018;Jordá et al, 2021;Schwarz & Shani, 2016). For some, vulgar, barbarous, provocative, and inciting comments are boundary-marking content; they are experienced as a "symbolic contamination" of one's personal space and hence these spaces need to be "cleansed" (Schwarz & Shani, 2016).…”

“…Some describe extreme posts and comments as emotionally exhausting and distressing and feel that they have the right to protect themselves from such utterances (John & Gal, 2018). Others report that since the personal spaces are primarily used as a domain for entertainment, they feel entitled to content that pleases them; hence content that is not to their liking, such as opinion-challenging and offensive posts and those that distribute fake news, is considered "out-of-place" and marked for rejection (Jordá et al, 2021).…”