I found myself mindlessly scrolling on Facebook every day to react to memes and hit the like button on my friends’ and family’s posts. I cannot delete my Facebook account entirely because it is the way I communicate with my friends and family abroad.

Yesterday, instead of mindlessly scrolling on Facebook, I spent some time checking my profile and going through my friend list, and I decided to clean my Facebook a little bit.

Removing friends from our Facebook friend list can be a daunting task, and it is hard to do because it might be the only way we connect with them.

But are we really connecting with them?

Here are six reasons why I removed some friends from my friend list on Facebook:

1. I stopped pleasing people

When I was in eighth grade, I used to like other people’s pictures on Facebook in order to get the likes back. But I am not that kind of person anymore; I don’t please anyone to get validation from strangers.

I have grown up and I have a new perspective on life, and I no longer care how many likes I get on Facebook. I have had some posts on Facebook that were quite interesting, but I received fewer likes on them, and I had awful posts, but I got more likes on them than on any of my impressive posts.

We tend to take pictures from different angles to make them look good and to get the attention we wanted. But we shouldn’t be spending more time doing so because the likes we get wouldn’t matter; it is what we do outside of social media that actually matters.

2. They’re not really my friends

The 738 Facebook friends I have won’t be there when I reach the rock bottom of my life. They will not be there when I needed their help, and I wouldn’t be there for them when they need my help either. Most of them wouldn’t even care if I opened my own small business.

3. I am a minimalist 

I let go of the things that do not give meaning to my life; I remove whatever clutters my space.

Having a bunch of friends on Facebook does not make me happy. I like keeping people whom I can speak to every once in a while around me—people whom I can help with anything and people who can help me in return.

I wanted to live a life that is simple but extraordinary. Having too many friends on Facebook who do not even say “hi” or ask you “how you’ve been doing” is not for keeps. The same goes for me; I haven’t asked my Facebook friends how they have been doing in such a long time.

4. There’s no point in keeping them

I want to keep my friends whom I actually talk to at least once a month. There is no point in keeping the people I don’t talk to regularly, as it just takes away space from adding exceptional people who add meaning to my life.

The posts of the people I recently removed from my friend list do not even add value to my life; it does not help me improve myself to become a better person.

5. I don’t know them

I don’t know any of these people personally, and they don’t know me in person either. I know them by name and they are probably from the school or the church I used to attend, but I don’t want to keep these people I don’t know. I have outgrown them differently, and I now have a new perspective on life.

6. I want to keep my space safe

Back then, people would assume that I am rich because I live in Canada. But living in a developed country does not make you wealthy, what makes you rich is how you do in life.

Yes, a minimum wage in Canada may seem reasonable if you exchange it for another currency, like the peso. But I don’t earn Canadian dollars and live in the Philippines; I live in Canada, where being on minimum wage is not enough for me to become rich.

If you were once my Facebook friend and you came across this post, well, I am not sorry. I guess I made a good decision for both of us. Yes, you could tell me, I just took trash off my Facebook list.

To be clear, I removed some friends from my Facebook list because there is no point in keeping them. Everyone changes, and I am not a people-pleaser anymore. I am a minimalist, I want to make space for people who add more value to my life.

I want to keep people who genuinely give meaning to my life.