Last month, I posted something about social media.
Not that I want this to be a social media blog, but I’ve wanted to try and revisit some things. In that post, I talked a bit about protecting yourself and all that good stuff.
I also mentioned how I like to keep my personal Facebook account down in regard to “friends” as it’s my personal space – not something where I just add friends and friends.
And friends and friends.
You know how that goes – some people have thousands of friends on the “book.” That just seems crazy to me.
I decided to revisit it earlier this week. I’m currently below my 250 threshold, but I wondered how much further I could take it.
Mind you, I haven’t deleted anybody yet, but I went through and counted nearly 25 people who I either haven’t dealt with in a long time or I’ve never met personally. Usually, for me, that latter statement is a no-no. But I have a few people who I’ve not actually met in person who I have no issues with being on that list, be it through blogging or photography or something along those lines.
But there were still a bunch …
This post discusses that aspect of things and, more specifically, pulling the trigger to “unfriend.”
A couple of years ago, unfriend was actually added to the dictionary. The definition, as a verb is: “to remove (someone) from a list of designated friends on a person’s social networking Web site.”
It’s never easy, is it?
A couple of years ago, somebody I knew had more than 1,500 people on his list. Can you imagine? One night, he realized it was time to clean. Within an hour or so, he trimmed the heck out of that list.
With me, it’s a smaller scale. So trimming it is a little harder at times. I know it needs to be done, but sometimes … it’s holding on.
And, honestly, I don’t think those who I looked at on the list would even notice.
So where’s the difficulty?
I go through and look and can’t seem to pull the trigger. Is it the hesitance of doing the deed? I know it’s been done to me (and recently one or two that have done it is a relief, to be honest) and it doesn’t personally offend me. So why I can’t I do the same?
It’s like saying goodbye to a long-lost friend or something.
But seriously, why does it seem so hard to click the unfriend button? Anybody else have these issues? One night, I’ll just go “cold turkey” and start slashing away … or I might not. I just never know.
Feel free to leave a comment, or e-mail P.J. at hoohaablog [at] gmail.com. Also, please “Like” HooHaa Blog on Facebook!
I’ll only unfriend someone if they start posting crap regarding politics and other subjects I can’t stand over and over.
Phil recently posted..The unspeakable things I have done for pie in NYC
I hear you on the politics and such. I am not the biggest political person and I respect people’s opinions, but it gets old quickly. Worse yet are the “fans” who bash their teams whenever anything goes wrong. Newsflash — teams aren’t going unbeaten and winning championships every year. Suck it up.
Just DO it!
I’ve been slowly whittling my list of Facebook “friends” down to family, friends IRL and people I haven’t met IRL but with whom I have more in common with than the simple fact that we are both Facebook “friends” with someone who enjoys a particular hobby.
I rarely post anything on Facebook, so I doubt the unfriended people miss my wit and insight.
At one point I had close to 500 Facebook “friends” and it’s currently less than 150.
As a result, the few times a month I open Facebook, I’m more inclined to scroll down my feed to see what people have been up to – mainly because I “know” them in some way or another, so what they say is more likely to matter.
That’s the point I am starting to get to. I need to just take the leap. And 500 to 150 … that’s a good cut. I’ve never really crossed the 250 mark, so I won’t have to go that crazy! The one thing, now, is that you can “unsubscribe” from somebody’s feed, yet still be friends. But I don’t even worry about that as much as I am more about my feed being seen by people I might not interact a lot with.
I’m much like Phil. I’ve only defriended a couple of people and it was because of political crap they kept spewing over and over and over again. It got old and then the one guy said, “Oh, by the way, if you’ve done this, you might as well defriend me now, because you and I aren’t going to get along.” I didn’t need a second push to take that plunge. LIfe’s too short to waste on people who just elevate your blood pressure.
Paul recently posted..On Safari
I always talk a mean game, but it takes me time to actually unfriend people. I think it would be easier if I had thousands. But with a small grouping, I tend to wait. There are certain things that will get me to unfriend, or at times, just unfollow so I don’t see the items in my feed all the time.