Women unfriend more, regret less on social media – Facebook, Twitter study

American men are more likely to have Facebook regrets than women while American women are more likely to unfriend than men,  a new study from the Pew Research Center suggests.

The study examines the habits of American social media users. It draws heavily on the experiences of Facebook users since Facebook is currently the country's dominant social media site.

The study's most interesting findings, according to the Associated Press:

• 15 percent of men and eight percent of women say they've posted something regrettable on social media
• 67 percent of women restrict access to their profiles compared with 58 percent of men
• People with higher education levels said they had the hardest time deciphering privacy settings.
• Young adults were more likely to edit their profile comments.
• Age does bring wisdom. Older users were less likely to post regrettable comments on social media.

Pew's conclusions are based on a survey of 2,277 adults conducted in the spring of 2011. Data on teen social media usage was collected in separate phone interviews with teens and parents. 

"The report highlights a divide between those who may care about privacy when it comes to social networks and those who seemingly do not," All Things Digital said.

MSNBC pointed out unfriending is on the rise.

Overall, the Pew study found that two of every three web users is on a social networking site.

Unfriending has grown to 63 percent in 2011 from 56 percent in 2009. Nearly half of all social media users have deleted comments by others on their profiles and nearly four in 10 people have unidentified themselves in photos. 

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