Some people treat getting additional Facebook friends as a competitive sport, but if you are friends with several hundred people chances are your list could do with some culling. Sean Goode suggests an easy way to do that: delete anyone you don’t have a distinctive and meaningful memory of.
Picture by Perfect1864
Writing on Telstra’s Exchange blog, Goode notes that Dunbar number theory suggests we can’t have meaningful interactions with more than 200-odd people. He keeps his Facebook friends number below that with a simple test:
When deciding who to remove and who to keep in my friends list, I follow a simple rule: If I can recollect a meaningful story or anecdote about the two of us then I will keep you.
Facebook’s automatic sorting and prioritisation features mean that you’re probably not seeing posts from many of your “friends” anyway. If you’re happy with that state of affairs, then culling your list may not be a high priority. However, spring cleaning your Facebook friends list can be a sensible way to streamline your digital lifestyle and making the interactions you do have more purposeful. For more thoughts on how to tidy up your social networks, check out our comprehensive guide.
Have your own criteria for keeping or deleting Facebook friends? Let’s hear it in the comments.
What’s your social number? [Telstra Exchange]
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