How To Know Who To Unfollow

A few months ago, I put a question box on my Instagram stories asking followers to contribute their thoughts, ideas and opinions on how to know who to unfollow from their social media platforms. 

There’s a fine line on social media between following people you know, people who inspire you, people who share information, and just following strangers. Maybe you’re hardcore “team followback,” and you feel the pressure to please people so you follow everyone who follows you on every type of social media account. 

Perhaps you’ve just never thought too much about it and you’ve been accumulating a long list of people you’ve followed for years. But if you’ve spent any amount of time on any social media site, especially the Instagram app, you know that after a while, you need a break. 

In 2018, a group of British researchers conducted a study and found that social media use was directly tied with poor sleep, anxiety and depression, panic attacks, social anxiety disorder and other specific phobias, only to name a few. 

With more and more research becoming available on the connections between our Instagram accounts and mental illness, there’s no better time than now to take a good long look at who you’re following and make some necessary changes. 

With the help of my trusty followers, here are 7 questions to ask yourself when deciding who to unfollow on social media: 

1. Do I compare myself to them?

I believe this is the main reason you should unfollow someone. If watching their life causes you to covet, compare, and be jealous, and especially if it makes you feel insecure, unfollow them. 

There may be aspects of everyone’s life that we compare ourselves to. But if their content is constantly begging you to ask, “Why isn’t my life that perfect?” “Why can’t my body look that way?” “I’d do anything to have what they have” then my friend, you need to get out of there. 

2. Are they joyful, uplifting, and inspiring, or are they negative and un-relatable? 

This one should be obvious, but we all need the reminder. If they’re constantly sharing negative content or things you just don’t relate to, unfollow them. 

Perhaps you followed someone because you related to them or they inspired you at one point in your life. Give yourself permission to re-evaluate if that is still the case and make a decision accordingly. 

3. Would I notice if they were gone? Would I miss them if I unfollowed them? Did I even know I was following them to begin with?

These were the biggest markers for me in my recent social network unfollow spree. So many times I would follow someone super randomly, without even taking into account (lol) who they were. Asking myself these questions was really helpful in deciding who to unfollow. 

4. Are they adding value to my life, or just adding noise?

A question only you can answer, but an important one to ask. Dig deep on this and be honest with yourself. 

Maybe you can use this in consideration for the kind of companies and brands you follow. Do you really need to be following them? 

5. Are we friends? If I saw this person in real life, would we say “hi” to each other and catch up?

This one relates to people you actually know. I mean, do you really need to still follow your high school science lab partner, or the girl you made friends with at that one-day conference 7 years ago? 

If you wouldn’t stop to chat and catch up, and especially if you don’t even really care about what’s going on in their life (which is ok, by the way), it’s best to unfollow them. 

 6. Am I constantly judging them for what they post?

Maybe what they share doesn’t spark comparison or greed in your heart, but it does spark contentment. Yikes! Let’s have a healthy heart-check moment and give ourselves the space to work out those feelings by unfollowing that person, even if it’s only temporary. 

7. Do they encourage my walk with the Lord?

I recognize you don’t have to follow accounts that exclusively post faith-based content. In fact, one could argue it’s even healthy to follow folks who may have a different worldview than you do. 

But if you are going to follow someone who has an outspoken platform of faith, be sure that they’re encouraging you, not condemning you or shoving bad theology down your throat. 

Matthew 6:22-23 says “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.”

There’s a lot more to protecting our eyes and our mental health than just who we follow on social media. But taking the time to unfollow accounts that don’t serve you well is a healthy and necessary step in the right direction.

Happy unfollowing!