Why do I follow people on Facebook?

I recently bumped into an old friend who I hadn’t seen for the best part of a year.

Every time I started to update her on my news she interrupted me to finish my anecdotes.  Despite her not being a great Facebook user she was a regular reader and was more than up to speed on my life.

It’s something I’ve been mulling over since and it’s made me question not just how I use Facebook but why I use it.

In particular I’ve wondered about why I follow certain people.  I’m not a collector of Facebook friends.  I will only ever friend people I’ve met face to face. But if we slowly collect FB friends in our work and social lives, when is it reasonable to let go?

There are a people I follow who I know I will never meet again. There are others I’m friends with purely because I can’t quite let go of old lives.  The photos they post are snapshots, not just how they live, but of how I used to.

There are also one or two car crashes, people who I wonder just how it’s going to work out for them.  Where could they possibly go from here? They are their own soap operas.

Despite regular use I’ve never quite warmed to Facebook.  Which, of course, prompts me to ask myself why I use it.  I’m building up to what I’m calling No Facebook February to try and move away from it. The people I genuinely like I should return to meeting or emailing – the rest it’s probably healthy to let go.

I think we should allow ourselves to forget people we’ve known and moved on from.  We have to create space. We need to cut down the noise and give a little more to those people (and causes) we genuinely care for.

Just because we can now keep all the friends we’ve ever made, doesn’t mean we should.