As society changes with time, as does social media. Its only natural that the change is reflected.
We, on the other hand, don’t always respond to these changes as quickly as they happen. In the early days of social media, when Myspace was still a thing and all the cool kids had Bebo *shudders*, we were all friends. Its the same with Facebook now; the connection is a two way street.
New SM is all about following though. Unless you keep your security settings tight, people can follow you until their hearts content, and while you get that little pop up in your notifications, you don’t get to say yes or no. And while we love watching our numbers go up and up, the old ways of social media produce a little voice in our heads that say ‘hey, follow them back’. There’s no obligation, but often it seems like a polite way of acknowledging this new person who’s watching our life. As well as this, its not uncommon to see promises of following back as a way to not only entice new followers, but also promote the idea of it being a friendship.
But here’s the thing: you don’t have to follow anyone back, and its totally ok to unfollow people. You don’t gain anything from having your feed full of content that you don’t find interesting or relevant, and its not like its a personal attack on them or their account.
Its also a case of interaction – what’s the point of following someone if you know there won’t be any interaction? Followers vs actual engagements is a huge debate on social media, and I know that I’m instantly put off by an account if, for example, I replied to a tweet by someone, and didn’t get any form of acknowledgement from them. In some cases, it does actually make me wonder why I’m bothering.
The fact is, its your feed, and your account, and you can and should be doing what you want without worrying about it. Put yourself and what you want first, and if that means unfollowing a bunch of people that are clogging up your feed with negativity or irrelevant posts, then go for it! It’ll give you more time to chat with the people that you do like to see!
If you enjoyed today’s ramblings, you might also be interested in my post on what puts me off following on Twitter!
Lottie Does 
Crazy that I have just read this as I am going through my Twitter unfollowing pages I don’t really interact with anymore, great post!
So many people think that unfollow is such a crime, but there’s nothing wrong with doing it! Thanks lovely 🙂
I agree! Loving your content at the moment, can’t wait to see more!
Thank you! 🙂
I agree with your point where you said if you follow someone and comment to them and they don’t reply, it makes you feel a bit like they think they have too many followers to acknowledge, which doesn’t make you feel good at all x
Yeah, it doesn’t really encourage interaction! X
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I wrote a similar post to this not long ago! I much prefer following people who I like and/or interact with, and I won’t be offended if people unfollow me for the same reason 🙂
Exactly, unfollowing isn’t always the insult people make it out to be 🙂
Tbh, I do this quite often. I go through my IG and Twitter followers and cull them. I end up following so many people throughout the year that I can’t even keep up with Twitter or IG so a cull is necessary. I only cut the people whose stuff doesn’t inspire me or interest me.
I do the same with Facebook, especially when I’m only seeing posts from people I hardly know or haven’t spoken to in years!
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