Social Media Clean Up
Every day I get on Facebook, I get a prompt to wish my friends happy birthday. I was looking at the birthdays one morning and did’t know half of the people listed. But, they were my “friends” so I should know them, right? So many times, we add people to our social media because we saw them at a conference, or because our real friend (who we actually know in person) knows them, or even because social media suggests them as a connection due to mutual friends. We follow and tag different people on various social accounts that we have never met, in hopes to either connect with them or increase our reach and following. Over time, this builds up and can have the opposite effect on our platforms and even our lives. Every year, if not multiple times a year, we should do a social media clean up. We need to review who we follow and are connected to. We should review photo and post tags and social posts we have created to ensure they are still valid.
Social media was created to shorten the distance between people. Its a place to connect. Posting on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and others, exposes us to the world. This makes us vulnerable, not only to encouragement and praise, but also to slander and bullying. Social media can be used as a weapon and things can be taken out of context. You can never be too carful about what you post online. This is why it is good to do a social cleanse. Periodically run though your social accounts and see if they properly represent you, your thoughts, stances, and feelings.
When I started going though my friends list after not knowing who I was wishing happy birthday, I discovered that I had many people that I never knew, as friends. I also had friends who were from different chapters of my life and didn’t really fit where I was currently. Nothing personal to them, but their friendship or acquaintanceship didn’t add to my life or support my identity. So, I took the afternoon and unfriended a lot of people from Facebook. No, I didn’t make a post afterward saying “If you are seeing this, then you made the cut!” What decluttering your friends list does, is concentrate your feed on the people you want to see. It is also mentally and emotionally healthy for you, not having empty connections draining you.
After that, I went to my photos. I have been on Facebook since it started. I have a lot of photos. So, I havnt totally completed the next two tasks, but I have started them. As I started going though my photos, I started deleting the ones that no longer represented me. There were photos from past relationships, photos of embarrassing moments, photos with people I no longer associate with. As I went though photos, I deleted some, and untagged myself from other. This takes away weapons others can use against you. It also allows your profile to reflect who you are now, and not confuse people as to who you were before.
Typically, most of our posts have a photo attached. So, going though my photos allowed me to go through my posts at the same time. If I took a photo down, many times, the entire post came down with it.
Finally, check you bio. Organizations look at your bios, and it saying you worked at the Krusty Crab will not get you a second interview. It is honestly better to keep some of your bio restricted to friends only or completely private. Relationship status’ can cause a lot of drama. Political and religious views can do the same. Keep your bio short, simple, and to the point. Showing your education can be valuable, as can your job and title.
Instagram is easier to go through than Facebook. You can easily see the photos you no longer want to display, and delete them. You can also go to your tagged photos and remove the tag from those if you so desire. What many do not know is that you can remove followers. In your profile, click Followers. A list of accounts that follow you will appear. To the right of each will be a button that says remove. You can click that and they will be removed as a follower of your account. They will not be notified so it’s not awkward. Once you have removed followers, I suggest going into your settings (3 lines at the top right of your profile), click privacy, and making your profile private. The lock in the upper left hand corner (next to my Instagram handle) shows that my account is private. People can still find you, but they cannot see your content. If they request to follow you, you will get a notification and will have the option to accept or deny their request. Also in your settings, you can block and restrict other accounts.
The same principles discussed with Facebook and Instagram can be applied to all social media platforms. It is smart to go through your Twitter feed and make sure you didn’t drunk tweet something stupid. It would be wise to check your LinkedIn to see if you are actually following individuals and groups that align with what you do and what you are passionate about. All in all, it is good to clean up our social media from time to time. Businesses and organizations look at your social profiles to get a real understanding of who you are. Yes, one can speak freely on social media, but that doesn’t always mean you should. So I challenge you to examine your social channels and see if the content you are consuming is really adding to your life, or just distracting your from living it.
Jeff Fyke 