Facebook Cull

About a month ago I did a pretty huge cull of Facebook friends. Not with clubs or icepicks like a Canadian, just a clearout of people I never speak to.

I was kinda inspired by a post on UnrealityMag that I can't find anymore about how Facebook is getting too big. Too many "friends" posting too much inane stuff. It really struck a chord with me as at the time I was trying to figure out what I used my various social networking profiles for. Twitter for news/celebrity stalking, YouTube for videos (uurr obvs) and Facebook which seemed to be a continuous feed of noise when really I thought it should be a tool for staying in touch with my friends.

Now this isn't me telling you what you should use it for as some of the most amazing inventions have come from people not using things properly but it's what I thought I could use Facebook for.

"Naked ladies? On the internet?! Why would you put that on there?!"


This is literally the first thing that comes up when you Google "Naked Ladies on the Internet"

Prior to the cull I had about 450 friends, most of whom I'd accrued through importing old MSN messenger lists, schoolfriends adding me, colleagues from work and the occasional girl I'd met at a party who I'd spectacularly failed to pick up. Afterwards I'd whittled it down to about 350.

My criteria were brutal. Basically I asked myself had I seen this person in the last five years and did I want to continue hearing about what they were up to? Especially if it was unlikely that I'd see them in the future.


"Is that Nick over there?"

Unfortunately the bulk of people culled were old schoolfriends. I wanna use this opportunity to say it's nothing personal but if we weren't part of each others lives since school and hadn't made the effort of meeting up in the intervening TEN years what is the point of us knowing what we're doing on a day to day basis? Not to say I won't ever speak to them if I do bump into them again, I just don't see the point of hearing the minutiae of their lives.

Putting it in such simple terms does make me seem like a bit of a dick, but I stand by decision and the fact that I have nearly as many followers on Twitter means nothing. Honestly.