Facebook Purging

Earlier this year, I decided to go through my friends list on my Facebook and delete a lot of people. It wasn't because I disagree with their beliefs or because they were mean or because I get sick of them posting bar pictures or gym visits (neither of which I actually get sick of, those are just two things that people commonly seem to get irritated with). It was because, well, why? Why keep people around that you haven't seen in years? Answer: that's why you have Facebook. To let your friends and loved ones you don't see often keep up with your life.

Okay. That's spectacular and I agree with that philosophy. Except what about when the person who you've maintained a Facebook friendship with for years never does anything? By this I mean a lot of "anythings". I mean the obvious, "They never like my posts or comment on them! They never reach out to me!" stuff. I also mean the, "They never post anything!" and the less obvious, "All they ever post is generic memes or quotes that aren't even original thoughts without even a personal explanation as to why they're posting these things!"

Why keep these people around? These people are doing one of two things. They are either just trolling around, trying to inconspicuously find fodder for gossip and/or they are not even participating at all. And I'd be a hypocrite if I said I didn't love some good gossip from time to time. We all do. I'd be a hypocrite if I said I was always at full attention on social media. That's just too much... Ummm.... Computing? Networking? I don't know, but it would get exhausting to be connected to it 100% of the time.

I plan on having another deletion party in the near future. I want to make it clear that this is nothing personal. I just don't see a point in maintaining 500 friendships, 350 of which aren't making any attempt to engage me (or anyone) in their social networks. That's not what friendship is. And if I could find a realistic way to separate my real friends from my strictly Facebook friends, I would probably keep everyone around forever. But, lets FACE it (pun totally intended), Facebook has made that nearly impossible. It doesn't matter who you "mark as important" or "hide". They're gonna show you whatever it is they want to show you in whatever order they want to show it to you.

Also. Here's something fun for you all to do. Go on through and turn all of your "public" posts and pictures to "friends only". Today's my day off from working out, so that's what I've spent the wee hours of the morning doing. It's actually enlightening. If you're confused on how to do this... Here's a quick lesson from someone who doesn't understand much about this stuff:

1. Go to the little padlock with lines coming out of it at the top right hand corner of your Facebook screen. Click it.
2. A drop down menu should appear. Click on "Who can see my stuff?"
3. From here, you can click on "What do other people see on my timeline?" and a "View as" link. Click that.
4. That's going to show you all the stuff that you're showing to the entire world. It may be nothing, it may be every single post you've written since the day you arrived on Facebook's doorstep.
5. Once the shock has worn off, you can go through and individually set the privacy for each picture or post OR....
6. Go to the cog wheel at the upper right of the page, click on Privacy settings, and in the section that says "Who can see my stuff", choose the link that says "limit past posts" (see picture below).
7. From there, it will explain that this will turn all public posts to private. It'll also ask if you're sure. Yes, Facebook, we're sure.
8. Hooray!

Yeah, it's a totally blurry picture but you get it. Upper right, you will need the padlock with lines and the cog. Then once you get
to the right place, you will need the other circled part.