How To Clean Up Your Facebook Friends List

Over the years, Facebook has grown and so has the number of friends we have on the site. We all use it for different purposes – be it professional, personal, or both. But sometimes, our news feed becomes more of a clutter instead of a constant flow of information. I am sure all of us have had thoughts about cleaning up our Facebook friends list quite a few times. But what actually should be the criteria for restricting, or worse – unfriending your Facebook friends?

Here’s what I do – I ask myself a few questions before I click on the unfriend button. If I don’t want to unfriend someone (in case it’s a colleague, a school friend, etc), I soften the blow by restricting their posts on my news feed as well as restricting what they see on my profile. Here are a few things you can think about.

Criteria For Cleaning Up Your Facebook Friends List

1. Is the content they post relevant to you?

This isn’t based on one or two statuses they post, but overall. Go through their profile and check out what kind of content they are posting. If you feel like they post boring and uninteresting stuff, and you cannot connect with what they write, feel free to unfriend them.

2. Is the person someone you know?

Sometimes we accept friend requests from some people just because we have a friend who is friends with them. There’s no harm in that, but we need to find out if the person we just added is trustworthy or not. If you are unsure of the person, put them in the restricted list so they can only view the posts you make public.

3. Do you share similar interests?

We share similar interests with people we are friends with in real life, right? Likewise, it’s true for your Facebook friends too. Keep the like-minded and positive people in your Facebook friends list. If a person constantly updates statuses or posts photos which I don’t necessarily agree with, or if they keep picking fights with me by creating misunderstandings, I tend to restrict them or in the worse cases, unfriend them.

4. Have you ever interacted with them online or IRL?

This is quite important. I have many real life as well as online friends in my Facebook friends list. Though I haven’t met many of my online friends who I came in contact with through twitter, I know they can be trusted because I have interacted with them for years and we share many active common friends. But if you have added any online friend you barely know, it’s best to restrict some posts from them. Also, if there are people who do not engage with you on Facebook, it’s time for them to leave your Facebook friends list. What’s the point of Facebook if there is no interaction whatsoever, right?

5. Is that person using some anonymous or fake profile?

Some people like to stay anonymous on Facebook, so they don’t post any photo or details about themselves. There are also some people who steal identities of other people and create accounts with their pictures. I try to stay away from such profiles and don’t accept their requests at all. But if you have, for better privacy, unfriending is the way to go. You don’t want those people in your Facebook friends list.

6. Does that person continuously post cringe worthy content?

If a person keeps posting nsfw or offensive content, that’s when you restrict or unfriend.

Facebook is meant to be a place where you can connect with people you love, and people you like to interact with. If you’re unsure about someone or don’t like having conversations with someone, there’s no need to keep them in your Facebook friends list. Remember, you might sometimes post statuses about your personal life and put up family photos. Make sure those things only reach the people you consider your good friends.