And then he unfollowed me.
I didn’t know him outside of the social media-bubble, but we had formed, what I thought was, an Internet friendship. I always counted on his Instagram like or tweet fav. I’d return the favor with similar interactions. Then, what I thought was a mutually beneficial social media connection, abruptly ended. I became angry with a man I had never spoken a real word to.
Why would he unfollow me? I thought to myself. I had never done anything to him. But that’s where my problem lies, and where I learned the art of the Unfollow Cleanse.
He had no reason to follow me in the first place. We never dated, we never talked on the phone, we never texted, we never even met. His only reason for following me in the first place was that he liked my photography style, I guess. Why should I be angry with someone who didn’t like what he saw anymore?
By unfollowing me, it gave me the permission I needed to do the same to other people. Slowly, I began cleansing people from my feeds. I got rid of the clutter on Facebook of the “friend” from high school who is married, has a child and shares spam on her timeline. I unfollowed the model on Instagram who I worked with once, three years ago. I made a rule for myself: If I didn’t want to get coffee with them, they were gone. And it felt great.
Unfollowing is my free therapy. I didn’t want individuals appearing in my respective notifications boxes that I didn’t truly care about. While this does not mean that I don’t follow any brands or celebrities on social media, I only follow the ones whose work I’m impressed by and appreciate.
It was hard at first. Just like it’s hard to delete your ex’s phone number from your phone. But, you bite the bullet and pull the trigger. Boy did I pull the trigger, and I have no regrets.
Emotionally, I feel great. I’m no longer jealous of that Instagram star’s free trip to Tulum or the hot guy I went to college with and his new girlfriend.
Post-Unfollow Cleanse, I only see posts of people and brands I know and have a connection to. By cleansing myself of all the content I didn’t need to see, I was able to appreciate the content that I could see.
From time to time, I still follow and unfollow. And that’s totally okay, even when it’s someone I kind of know in real life. And if they ever call me out on it, they definitely were not worth the follow in the first place.
Unfollowing allows me to cleanse my feeds of all that stuff. For that guy who unfollowed me, I was some of that stuff and that’s just fine with me.
