A good spring cleaning doesn't have to just be about organizing your closets or storage. Did you know that a digital clean up will do you a lot of good too?
While there are people who already regularly delete photos and posts, many still forget to clean up their friends list on social media platforms.
From privacy to security, here are five good reasons to purge your friends list...
1. To Protect Your Privacy From People You Don't Really Know
In the past, you may have added acquaintances and people you barely knew (or worse, have never even met before) to your friends list---back when social media didn't have such a steadfast presence in our lives. But a lot of things have changed since you started your first account. These days, people are keeping their online circles small---and for good reason.
For one, you may be a completely different person now from when you started your profile. Your public posts from years ago may make you cringe and you may crave more privacy now.
And while you have mastered how to tweak your audience settings to make sure that you don’t share things with the general public, you may still have people lurking on your friends list who are strangers. People you don’t know or with whom you simply don’t want to share updates about your life anymore.
These could be people you haven’t met in person, an acquaintance you don’t have a relationship with anymore or don’t fully trust, or an ex you don’t want to be in contact with anymore. You could also have people you don’t recognize in your list and don’t remember meeting or adding.
Are you sure you want to share your life now with all the people on your friends list, including people you barely know?
2. You Need to Protect Your Loved Ones’ Privacy Too
When you tag others in pictures, post group shots, or talk about them in a status, you share bits and pieces about their lives too. While it might be okay for you to share things with everyone because you think your life’s an open book anyway, this may not be the case for all your loved ones.
Some of them may want to keep their lives a bit more private. And you have to remember that you need to respect their privacy too. One way to protect your loved ones’ privacy is to clear your friends list of people you or your loved ones don’t trust.
That way, when you do post a picture after asking if it's okay with them, you're not sharing it with an audience of strangers and random people you barely know.
This becomes even more critical if you post photos and videos of your children. Children are too young to give consent or to say no to you posting their photos. Cyber experts believe that photos of your children should only be shared with people you trust.
3. Some Accounts May Be Compromised
Data breaches and hacks can lead to an account takeover. This is when a hacker gets into a person’s account and pretends to be them. They then post a status or send messages with spam or phishing links. Once inside an account, a hacker may also spy on the person’s contacts to get information for a targeted social media phishing campaign.
Less tech-savvy people may just abandon their account without managing to lock out the hacker. This means that some old accounts on your friends list may have already been taken over by a cybercriminal.
Once you go through your list, you might notice duplicate accounts for one person. This could mean that a previous account has been compromised and your friend couldn’t get into the account anymore. Sometimes, people just start a new account from scratch and don't delete the old one.
It's best to contact this friend so that you can double-check.
4. Some Accounts Are Inactive
Once you review your friends list you may notice many accounts that are now inactive.
This includes accounts that no longer have a profile photo (deactivated accounts) or just accounts that haven't been updated in years. In the latter case, your friend may have lost access to the account or simply isn’t interested in logging in anymore.
Whatever the reason is, there’s no point keeping these accounts on your friends list. They also pose a security risk as your friend may not monitor inactive accounts for suspicious logins or messages.
5. It Will Help Curate Your Feed
Another good reason to purge your friends list is so that you can focus on the people who really matter. Having too many friends on your list can add noise to your feed. Receiving updates from people you don’t want to hear from could drown out important news from your close friends and loved ones.
Some posts bury important updates under things you don’t want to read. You may be missing your loved ones' important milestones because your feed is filled with all the noise from other people on your list.
Having too many people posting things you don’t care about also makes your feed seem chaotic and confusing. Purging your friends list can create a more curated feed that includes people who really matter to you.
Declutter Your Online Circles
You may have matured a lot since you started your account and want more privacy or a simpler feed. You may also want to only keep relationships that are meaningful and only share things with those you trust.
This is why you should clean up your friends list regularly. Doing this will help protect your privacy and that of your loved ones. It will also get rid of all the digital clutter and noise on your social media feed.