Take a look at how many accounts on your social media platforms. Likely, several hundreds, if not thousands. How many of those accounts truly add value to your day? I guarantee at least 50% of the accounts you follow are cluttering up your feed.
Recently, I’ve caught myself mindlessly scrolling through Instagram without even digesting the content. My feed has been infiltrated by celebrities I never think about, high-end fashion brands I’ll never buy, and sports highlights of teams I don’t follow.
I was treating social media as if it was a daily chore that I had to accomplish. After taking a step back to look at things, I realized a core value that minimalism has taught me: if it’s not adding value to my life, then why allow it to waste my precious time?
Because of this lesson, spring cleaning came early this year for me. I pulled up the list of accounts I was following and thumbed through it to the very end. An hour later, I had unfollowed well over 100 accounts.
During this process, I took several things into account while deciding what made the cut:
- What purpose did the account serve? Is it humorous? Am I learning anything from it? Is it aesthetically pleasing?
- Why do I care about this account? Maybe it was an old friend I wanted to stay connected to or a community I identified with, such as @minimalismlife.
- Does this account enhance my social media experience? Simplify by only following the type of content you enjoy most.
But what if I miss something? Well friends, FOMO is futile. If you are on the fence about unfollowing an account—do it. Chances are, you’ll forget about that page in a few days. If not, I’m sure they’d gladly take you back.
Since the purge of accounts, I have been maintaining my feed by steadily decluttering while scrolling. If I ever glance at a post that doesn’t immediately hook me, I do myself a favor and hit unfollow.
Social media should be used deliberately as a source of entertainment. It should be something we can enjoy in the limited amount of free time we have throughout our busy day. It should be something of substance, not a junk drawer we open up and sift through passively.
By decluttering our social media accounts, we are allowing space for the content that truly adds value to our lives. As a result, we’ll likely spend less time scrolling and more time enjoying life outside of the digital world.