The No. 1 reason for unfriending on Facebook? "frequent, unimportant posts."

It seems many people must have a lot of Facebook friends they don't really know? I don't think I'd remove an actual friend, or even moderate acquaintance, simply because they posted too much unimportant stuff, or posted political/religious stuff I didn't want to see--- I'd just hide their posts from my feed. But I could see it being an impetus to remove someone I realized I didn't actually know.

Or perhaps the "hide posts from feed" thing isn't a widely known alternative?

Often comedians joke, "Nobody cares about what you ate for breakfast!"

But that isn't true! Your significant other does care and maybe your friend who gave you the recipe. The problem is that it isn't easy to prioritize certain items to certain people. I don't care what a friend from high school ate, but I do find it interesting to see what a friend who is a professional chef makes each night because it is often interesting to read and opens conversations.

I believe this has been submitted to HN before and I find it to have a lot of good insights into what social networks do vs how real life actually works. http://www.slideshare.net/padday/the-real-life-social-networ... (it is long but worth it)

I actually ended up "unfriending" facebook all together for frequent unimportant posts. I also found myself getting irritated with friends and family members from all the group invites, farmville updates, etc. and figured that facebook was mainly serving to undermine my real relationships with people. I have noticed Im much happier (and have much more free time) since I have kicked the facebook habit. Not trying to sound preachy though, do what makes you happy.

anyone surprised? probably the same goes for unfollowing on twitter

Better ability to categorize friends and have targeted "feeds" would help mitigate this.

google for: Annoying Facebook Girl Meme