Why should I spring clean my social media?

I believe spring cleaning your social media following lists is critical for your mental health. You’re probably thinking it’s not that serious, but it honestly is. Your brain is ALWAYS unconsciously absorbing information 24/7. Your brain is connected to your soul, your essence, and it, of course, controls your mood. Scientists, doctors, parents, annoying adults in your life have told you at one point in time that you have to be careful what you feed your mind by filtering the music that you listen to, the books and news articles that you read, etc. But what they never told you is that you have to be careful about what you see online, because social media didn’t exist and/or wasn’t “poppin’” when they were young adults.

Social media can affect your mood

I know I’m not the only one who has ever expressed any kind of emotion from what I’ve seen on social media. Negativity proliferates on social media. It seems like all of the negative people in the world own a Twitter or Facebook account. They are unhappy and want the rest of the world to wallow in unhappiness too. Negativity might as well be classified as a disease, because it’s contagious as heck, it’s airborne, and no one is immune from it. If you read negative posts all day long it WILL affect your mood, even if you don’t recognize that it does. If you see people posting about their baby daddy/mama drama, boyfriend/girlfriend issues, complaining about their job, etc. every single day, you will loathe seeing their name pop up in your timeline/newsfeed. Utilize that delete button, block button, hide posts button, anything! Seeing their daily negativity does not increase your daily productivity and it doesn’t add any extra commas to your bank account.

But they’re my family/friends!

I don’t care if they’re your family, friend, or foe — you need to remove them from your following list! I’ve personally removed family members because they were getting on my last nerves. Do I still speak to them at the family get-togethers? Yep, I’m cordial to everyone! If it’s a friend that’s being a Negative Nancy, you can mute them on Twitter and unfollow their posts on Facebook. However, let’s keep it real, if they are your friends that are constantly being negative and dampening your high spirits, you should probably cut the cord with them and kiss them goodbye. Love ‘em from afar, if you can love them at all. I honestly only have one person that I communicate with on a friend level. It’s much better to be alone than to deal with people’s shenanigans, but I’ll save that for another post.

Now, follow the right people

Now that you have cleaned your following list, you should probably follow more positive, impactful people. If you feel like your life is a bit stagnant at this point in time, you can’t expect for your life to change without absorbing insight from positive people. Your net worth is your network! Also, don’t forget that your net worth also encompasses more than just your income. I’ve heard this a thousand times and it will remain true forever. My mindset is forever evolving because of the people I have connected to in real life and online. Find someone who “gets it,” someone that you aspire to be, and follow them. If your life doesn’t begin to change from altering the information that your brain absorbs, you still aren’t doing something right. Keep on trying.

I recently cleaned my following lists because I’ve made some life changes and can’t tolerate negativity. Can somebody cue “No More Drama” by Queen Mary J. Blige?! I barely wanted to use social media because I was so tired of seeing drama on my timeline/newsfeed every day, but I needed to start utilizing it more since I started my online bakery business, and several months later I started my blog. I’m trying to brand myself and I needed to find a way to make social media more enjoyable for myself. Spring cleaning my following lists has definitely made my social media browsing time more pleasant. Following knowledgeable, impactful people has actually made me eager to open my social media apps.

What I want you to do today is take some time to analyze the people you follow and determine which ones should stay and which ones you should virtually kiss goodbye! Your mind and soul will thank you later. Don’t forget to follow new, more positive people and watch your mindset evolve.

What tips do you guys have for filtering your social media accounts? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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Brittany Hollie

Writing since June 2016 · 2 stories contributed