Today, a good friend of mine posted a selfie to show off her new hair-do. She has only twice posted a photo of herself and she’s been on Facebook for years. A “friend” of hers commented in part, “I am totally against close up selfies, and I always unfriend,” and then she promptly unfriended her. That really stuck in my crawl! I mean, who the f*ck unfriends someone for something in such a ridiculous and childish manner? There are very good reasons to unfriend a person, but THAT was not one of them!

I have unfriended a few people in the 10+ years I’ve been on Facebook but mostly I just “unfollow.” It seems the better alternative to offending someone or hurting their feelings, especially when the reasons are that you’ve just been annoyed one too many times. Unfollowing allows you to still be friends on Facebook, but their posts stop showing up on your feed.

There are great (and reasonable) reasons to unfriend people on Facebook. Below are some of those reasons.

1. Racism – Posting anything of this nature should be an automatic unfriending in my opinion.
2. Promoting violence of any kind – This is not cool!
3. Religious and/or political fanaticism – Everyone has the right to his or her own opinions and ideas but that doesn’t mean that everyone wants to hear about it and they shouldn’t have to unless asked.
4. Inappropriate language and/or content, nudity – Come on. Have some class! I mean, I have the vocabulary of a sailor, to be honest, but I try to have a little respect for others.
5. Promoting hate/hate crimes – Same as #2. Not cool.
6. Stalker-ish behavior – If someone seems to be visiting your page and commenting on everything you post, if they send you messages all the time, or if they just give you a creepy feeling, unfriend and BLOCK.
7. Stirring up trouble for other people – No one needs added drama in their lives. We all have enough of that sh*t without help. Am I right?
8. Airing personal problems – Personal issues should be settled privately, not for all of Facebook to see.
9. Spreading lies, half-truths, and rumors – Unfriend quickly. No one needs a friend like this.
10. Constant negativity – Things can’t always be that bad and if they are, why is that person on Facebook instead of getting his/her sh*t together?
11. Constant soliciting – Who wants to be bombarded with private messages or posts on their feed of things someone is trying to sell?
12. Disrespectful comments, back-stabbing, and lack of honesty, integrity, kindness – There’s enough of this in the world. We don’t need to see it or read it on Facebook.
13. Perpetuating fake news – When someone just shares meme after meme without any common sense thinking or research, cut ’em loose. I mean, we all can make a mistake and share something that’s not true, but the fake “facts” floating around the internet are absurd.
14. Posting things on your timeline that are totally irrelevant – If someone constantly posts links to horse riding school on my timeline when I’m not even remotely interested in horses, that’s unfriending material right there.
15. Bragging about their perfect life and how happy they are – No one’s life is perfect, and no one likes a bragger.
16. Posting spoilers on tv shows or movies on a regular basis that you haven’t seen yet – Either unfriend or unfollow. It’s just not nice for them to try and ruin things for others.
17. Constantly whining about problems and never doing anything to resolve those problems – Come on, if someone has a problem and they need help, asking for help is great. But constantly whining and not doing anything to resolve the issues is grounds for unfriending. Enough is enough.
18. Anti-government, anti-establishment, anti-everything posts – Negativity, in general, is a real buzzkill.
19. Making judgemental comments about your life – No one knows your journey so unfriend without feeling guilty.
20. Super-opinionated and/or insulting comments on your posts – No one needs this kind of stress. Unfriend.
21. Hunting/killing and dead animal photos – Some people enjoy hunting, the thrill of the kill….others do not. This type of thing really hurts my heart.
22. Continual conspiracy theory posts – I can’t believe how many seemingly intelligent people believe so many of these theories. I’m not saying they’re all untrue theories but if something is covered up, doesn’t that mean that many people have to keep their mouths shut?? We all know people can’t keep their traps shut. Lol.
23. Grammar Nazis – Ok, so I’m not exactly a Grammar Nazi because I make errors sometimes….but I do try to spell correctly and use punctuation. I also try to use complete sentences. BUT I don’t insult people on their posts for others to read. Not classy at all.
24. Links that make you sad – Maybe it’s a story of the abuse of an animal or a child, maybe it’s something else that really hurts your heart. I pass them by quickly or hide from my timeline. Sometimes I unfriend.
25. Terrible friend/relative – If someone did you or a family member terribly wrong, then by all means, unfriend.

So, that’s my list of reasons to unfriend someone on Facebook. I’m sure there are others that escaped my mind, and there are always exceptions to the ones I listed. You may or may not agree, and that’s perfectly fine. You didn’t have to read this and if you think about it, my opinion isn’t hurting anyone now is it?

Do you have any other reasons one might unfriend someone on Facebook?