I am a serial unfollower

*Disclaimer: these photographs were taken before my Hangover Fear post was written.  I am off the booze.*

Contrary to popular belief, unfollowing a mutual from Instagram, deleting *that* guy from Facebook who you have not spoken to in years (yet are still annually bombarded with his Canadian lifestyle pictures) or even just muting someone who Tweets 24-bloody-seven is actually okay.  If you have ever wanted to ‘delete me’ from your life then that too, is fine and, in all seriousness, I implore you to do it.

Your social media accounts are your safe haven, your spot on the internet to showcase your mad cut crease skills, to present to the world barbering expertise, to review the best damn Mac and Cheese you can find across the continent and to document and share your bike handlebar collection with your friends, family and fans.  Social media is yours to mould, craft and of course, if you wanted, to make a living from.  It is your own hub of possibilities.

I, personally, love social media.  If you follow me on Instagram you will know it is my constantly-updated picture diary, Twitter is my vent-to-the-high-heavens-and-delete-it-instantly platform, Tumblr is my thoughts and feelings hidden away from all prying eyes and Pinterest holds the key to decorating and influencing my future life.

Social media presence and popularity grows rapidly every day.  The ‘do it for the Gram’ and ‘did you even do it if you did not Instagram it?’ mentalities are becoming ever-so-common, and people are even going as far as travelling to Athens, Los Angeles and Agadir *just* to get that shot.  You do you queen – if it makes you happy, then stick those middle fingers up to the high heavens and post what you want, when you want, and go to whatever length you are morally comfortable with.

However, what happens when those middle fingers are increasingly being needed when concerning your past platonic relationships, your ‘ride-or-die’ favourite Instagram accounts and your once sole-loved Youtubers?  

It is as simple as clicking the unfollow button.

Like I described, your accounts are your own and you can control what content you see, what information you want to be blocked out (thank fuck for Twitter’s ‘block out key phrases’ feature) and who views snapshots of your life through their phone or laptop screen.  Therefore, if you find yourself hating content posted by a particular account, dislike the idea of your ex’s new fling constantly watching your every move or just simply no longer want to connect with somebody then… Poof! Unfollow! Bye-bye!

I used to have 800+ Facebook friends and am now currently sitting at around 250, with quite a few more needing deleted ASAP.  Sorry (not sorry) in advance, unknowing Facebook friends.  Just because they sat in the right hand corner of your GCSE maths class and they said they liked your hair once?  I do not think so.  Unfollow.  Delete.

You should never feel obliged to follow somebody just because you knew them, talked to them once in a club, or they followed you back.  If I do not appeal to you – then get rid of me like I would to you.  There is no harm done by clicking ‘unfollow’.  In fact, I think it is so much kinder for someone to unfollow or delete me than ignore me/pretend to not see my posts and then bitch about them to their friends.  But, that is just me.

Social media is your own online world – why should you feel bad about not wanting some people in it?  Guys, that unfollow is fine, do not be afraid to use it!  You have the power because the online world you have created for yourself is yours.

On that note, I think I am going to grab a cuppa, a couple biscuits and find some new social media accounts to invest my time in.  Let me know if yours should be one of them!

E.