Do you ever find yourself getting emotionally charged at postings that show up in your Facebook newsfeed? I certainly do, which is precisely why I was grateful when I discovered its “unfollow” feature not too long ago.
As I’m sure just about everyone already knows, if you’re friends with anyone on Facebook, the default action with their postings is to show up on your scrolling newsfeed every single day. Thus one’s newsfeed is really but the conglomeration of what each of one’s Facebook friends are placing in their timelines on a daily basis.
At first I didn’t have an issue with this. But as time went on I began to see a lot of ego, drama, and negativity in much of what people were posting. And given that the Facebook newsfeed is always the very first thing I had to see every time I logged in, it was hard not to notice this pattern.
Not being one to normally read the newsfeed anyway, I initially tried to tune that pattern out and only check the status of my automatic blog postings. But somehow something always drew me in and at some point, I found myself developing various unwanted feelings every time I chose to spend time on my newsfeed. Sometimes it was only slight irritation over what someone had posted, but other times I actually found myself feeling a lot more than that. There were moments I felt jealous or envious, depressed, or even angry and at some point I finally had enough of it. It’s then I thankfully discovered the Facebook “unfollow” feature.
Using this feature was quite easy, as all I had to do was click the “unfollow” option and I’d remain friends with the person, yet I wouldn’t have to see any of their postings. So I began to do this with those I was most emotionally charged by in what they placed out on their timelines. But with so many others still connected to me overall on Facebook, I found plenty continued to show up on my newsfeed that I had no desire to see.
While I do believe in free speech and I’m all for people having their own opinions, I’ve learned in life that it’s far healthier for me to keep the outside ego, drama, and negativity to a minimum by shielding myself from it where I can. Of course, when I’m out and about in the world, that’s pretty hard to do, but when I’m by myself on my computer or on my phone, the last thing I need to see is more of it. And while I know there are vast amounts of good things that people do put out there on their Facebook timelines, I found it was rather hard to locate them more than not. I also found myself beginning to compare myself to everyone and everything on Facebook and feeling less than because of it. This is specifically why I ended up doing the most drastic action I could next.
I unfollowed everyone I was a Facebook friend with.
It was kind of funny at first to log into Facebook after I completed this action, because my newsfeed then became totally blank, except for my own blog postings. But as time went forward for a while like this, I found that I felt so much better whenever I had to log onto the social media tool. It’s then I began to notice my mood was remaining the same after logging out, as it had been when logging in.
It’s only been in recent weeks that I started adding back a few people here and there whom I know work hard on only posting positing and uplifting messages on their timelines, like my spiritual teacher does. And while I do occasionally go look at someone’s timeline that I’m not currently following, I find this has been a far better thing for me to do than being inundated with so many postings that emotionally charged me so greatly.
And while I do gear all of my own blog postings to be more spiritually positive than anything, I know there are some out there who probably still find them emotionally charging for whatever their reasons. Hence why the “unfollow” option is such a good tool to have on Facebook because I’m sure some have chosen to unfollow me as well.
So while I may not regularly see any of the places my Facebook friends are visiting or all the things they are eating when dinging out, while I may not learn of any of their religious and political opinions or all their frustrations they have in life, while I may not catch any of their jokes or video pranks they share or any of their new pictures either, I find I’m having a greater sense of peace and serenity in my life these days because of unfollowing the masses. And to be perfectly honest, I find that’s far more important to me than becoming emotionally charged with unwanted feelings from something as simple as some Facebook postings, as doesn’t life already have enough of that for each of us?
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson