Friend me or you'll strain us: understanding negative events that occur over social networking sites

Social networking sites (SNSs) provide the ideal infrastructure for the maintenance of existing relationships and the development of new contacts. Although these Web-based technologies supplement offline relationships, several of their characteristics have the potential to provoke negative experiences. The interpersonal strain and other relational problems stemming from negative events have recently gained notoriety. This investigation examines personal accounts of users who have experienced these negative events, which are described as any encounter or behavior exercised by others that instigates interpersonal strain, on SNSs to understand better the nature of this phenomenon. Using a mixed-methods approach, open coding of open-ended responses revealed 10 negative event types that surface during participation on SNSs. Quantitative coding was then used to identify a cut-off point for the most frequently experienced negative events. The findings reveal that the three most commonly experienced negative event types include ignoring or denying friend requests, deleting public messages or identification tags, and identifying ranking disparities on Top Friends applications. The practical, theoretical, and negative social implications of participation on SNSs are discussed.