Thursday, July 25, 2013

The Facebook Friends Clean-up


If you don't know how much I like to organize, clean up and clean out, you are obviously very new to my blog. Hello, everyone. My name is Liesl and I'm an organizing addict. So the following was bound to happen; The Facebook Friends Clean-up.

I've been on Facebook for six years and I've never really done The Facebook Friends Clean-up before. With my friend count hovering at an unmanageable 800, I knew I had to do some spring cleaning. As much as I wish that I had that many friends, I really don't.

The FiancĂ© and I had a talk about this the other day, as his friend count was at around 1400. What!?!... (Although, I wouldn't have been surprised if he really had that many friends, as anyone who knows him, would know that he is a social butterfly.) But alas, he said that he didn't even know who some of those people were. He also came to the conclusion that it was time for a major clean-up session.

At first I only deleted the inactive accounts. Baby steps. After that I "unfriended" people that I've met on some of my travels whom I had a good time with, but never talk to and will probably never ever see again. Then, the ones I haven't seen or talked to in the last five years had to go. The FiancĂ© and I spent lots of time going through our friend lists and as our friend counts started to go down, we actually felt how a weight was lifted off our shoulders.

I know this sounds dramatic, but it was really overwhelming to log into my Facebook and having to scroll down for 5 minutes on my Newsfeed to find people's updates that I actually wanted to see.

I talked to some of my friends about my process of "unfriending" all these people on Facebook, and their reactions were mostly, "Aren't you scared those people will feel confused/angry/upset/offended when they realize that you "unfriended" them? Well, maybe they will. But should they? For me, it's nothing personal. If I "unfriended" you, it's because we are not in each other's lives, we haven't talked in years (in real life or on Facebook), you don't know me, I don't know you, we are not related. Not because of any other reason. That's it.

I have now gotten my friend count down to a more realistic number, and it feels so good to open my Facebook and just seeing the updates of people I want to see the updates of. I've also promised myself not to accept random Friend Requests anymore and to be more picky.


What are your thoughts on "The Facebook Friends Clean-up"? Have you ever done that?

P.S. I won't "unfriend" you from the Pretty.Random.Things. Facebook page
so feel free to "like" it.

8 comments:

  1. I don't see a problem with it. I do the same thing once in a while. If you don't communicate with them, then it's most likely that they won't be upset about you deleting them. If they have 100+ friends, they may never even realize that it was you who un-friended them. And you have a right to decide who can view your information, pictures, etc. on Facebook.

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  2. I actually do this every now and then; check my friends-list and delete people because of the same reasons as you.
    Some years ago I had like 500 friends if I remember correctly and that's crazy to think about now since I obviously didn't know everyone, I didn't talk to everyone, I hadn't even met some of them and also I didn't even like everyone or cared about everyone. I didn't have the same "problem" as you, that I had to scroll down to see the updates I wanted to see, because I just hid all the people's updates that I didn't wanted to see or even cared about. I think that number of friends lasted some year and then I got enough and started to delete people for the first time and like I said, now I'm looking through my friends-list every now and then because now I ONLY want to have people I actually like, care about and/or talk with on my Facebook, which is the whole point to have FB to begin with according to me. :)

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    Replies
    1. I totally agree. I'm going to do this more regularly now to make sure it doesn't get too overwhelming again.

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  3. I so wish I could do this because I feel the SAME exact way you and your fiance do. DJ (my boyfriend) isn't as into Facebook as I am. I am torn because I run a side photography business, and what better way to get the word out to everyone about my services than to have a whole group of people on Facebook who'll see it? That's how I've gotten most of my business. So if it weren't for that, I'd definitely do some deleting. Maybe when I'm comfortable with the amount of business I get I'll do the Facebook Cleanup. :)

    Sarah
    http://coffeeringsandsouthernthings.com/

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    Replies
    1. I get what you're saying. Have you created a Facebook group for your business? You can set one up easily and get your Facebook friends to like it. Then, maybe after a few months you'll feel better about cutting down on the friend count. Just and idea :-) Good luck!

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  4. totally loved ur ARTICLE!! shared it on ym FB page! https://www.facebook.com/fashionistaera21

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