Today is National Unfriend Day and the name sounds exactly like what it is. If you’ve never heard of the holiday, it’s not a day where you drop all of your friends, but at the same time it is! You’re not unfriending the friends you have in person (though some may argue that this needs to be done as well), but you’re unfriending the people on your social media. Some may also like to call this a social media cleanse!

Why Unfriending people on social media is important.

Depending on when you created your social media accounts, you probably have had your online accounts for many years and many different moments in your life. Some people have had the same Facebook account since middle school or their freshman year of high school. This would mean that there are plenty of people in your friends list who have been on there since then! As someone who has plenty of people on my friend’s list on Facebook but is unaware of having seen even half of those people on my feed, I can tell you that you are probably not even aware of who you have friended.

Though keeping people as friends on your social media is pretty harmless, it’s also a waste and clutter when it could be cleared for those who are currently active in your life. I believe that every platform has a limit on how many friends you’re allowed to have or people that you’re allowed to follow. Keeping your friends list cluttered with those who you don’t talk to, barely remember, or are inactive altogether takes up the space to allow those who are currently active and part of the person you are today.

Unfriending people on social media is also a great way to protect your peace. We all know that social media is a wild place with many different personalities, and sometimes we’re not able to see those personalities until we hit “Friend”. People are also constantly changing and those you once used to connect with could have completely changed the type of things they post or say online. If these people don’t align with the person you are today, you have every right to let them go and clear your feed of the things that no longer serve you.

Take your time to clear people out.

I know that 2023 is coming to a close and people are typically in a rush to start things over, clear things out, and make sure that you’re not entering into 2024 with those same things or people. However, depending on how many social media platforms you have and how many people you follow/friend on each one, that is a lot of people to go through! Take your time to clear out people on each account.

Some tips to help clear each account could be:

• Plan days to tackle each social media account
• Make a goal of how many people to unfriend each day
• If you’re unsure of some people, give yourself a timespan and if you don’t interact with them nor see them on your feed during that time, then delete them
• Also, remember to give yourself grace because sometimes doing tasks that seem so simple is hard, especially when it comes to letting go of people or things.

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Though unfriending those who no longer serve a purpose in our lives is important outside of social media, it’s important to do so on social media as well. It’s something that people don’t always think about, which makes days like National Unfriend Day a great reminder to clear out that friends list and start fresh!

When was the last time you cleared out your friends list?