You know how you have those pieces of clothing you never wear but keep around “just in case”? In case you lose weight and fit into it again, in case some obscure event ever happens, in case you ever take it to the tailor to have it altered, whatever.
I mostly got rid of those pieces in my Great Decluttering of Winter 2011/2012, but I was reading through my Facebook the other day and realized I had way too many of those “just in case” people on my friends list. In case they post something I am qualified to comment on, in case we ever get together again, in case I can help them or they can help me. But like those pieces of clothes I ended up donating, the chances of me ever really interacting with them is pretty much nil.
Unlike those pieces of clothing, though, which just sat there and took up space, a lot of those people on my list actively annoyed me when I saw their posts. I don’t need a play by play of the fucking Grammys or the Superbowl. If I cared I would be watching it myself. I’m also not going to play into your ploys for attention when you post cryptic messages that just beg for someone to ask “What’s wrong?” or “What happened?” and the like. Either say what’s going on or STFU.
So I got rid of them in the same way I got rid of my clothes. If I hadn’t worn a piece of clothes in, say, a year, it got donated; if I hadn’t interacted with someone at all in a year, even just to ‘Like’ a post of theirs, I deleted them. If they were a real friend but I couldn’t stand their constant barrage of stupid updates, I unsubscribed from their posts (okay, that one has no wardrobe-cleansing equivalent). Easy peasy.
I realize this post makes me one of those people complaining about Facebook bullshit, but this is really the beginning and end of it. I don’t think I’ve bitched about it here before and I most certainly won’t in the future. I’m just saying there’s an obvious solution to all the whining people have about what happens on Facebook and it’s not bloody rocket science. Sometimes you need a reminder that it’s okay to let things go.
