I Unfollowed you…But you wouldn’t guess why
The infamous unfollow is often thought of as the bane of social media, particularly on Instagram (IG), and if by chance you’re unaware of what an unfollow is,
if you unfollow someone, you choose to stop seeing messages and pictures that they post on a social media website.
Just as people can voluntarily follow you, they may voluntarily unfollow you.
Traditionally the unfollow can be controversial in that it is often around an argument, disagreement, break up, or just feeling overwhelmed by the content being posted by the other person, as it doesn’t align with you anymore.
To the person unfollowed, who many times won’t realise unless they actively check using an unfollow app, it can lead to many thoughts as to why they were unfollowed.
Generally I don’t care who follows or unfollows, when or why they do it, but I have had a few instances where I was bothered:
Close College Friend Unfollow
A college friend who I deemed close to me, and with whom I shared many moments, unfollowed me. When I discovered it, I was crushed. It became clear to me that I had attached value to these virtual connections, or maybe to the real-life connection that I assumed extended virtually. I sent a message to said friend on Whatsapp and everything seemed perfectly fine, but something about me identifying this person as a close friend and them unfollowing me didn’t sit right with me.
I had affixed a series of expectations of my friend as it related to the social media platform:
- I inherently believed that a friend should want to see the things I post because they care about me and therefore should want to see elements of my life, especially if we don’t live in the same country.
- As a close friend, you just have to follow out of loyalty.
- I’d never unfollow you, so why would you unfollow me?
And if you aren’t careful, the questions will continue and the likely inaccurate suppositions will lead you down a rabbit hole of false narratives, which could be simply explained by the fact that the person wasn’t…
