When you are on social media, you connect with all the people that are currently part of your life. You also connect with people from your past such as your childhood friends and your teachers from your old school as well. You can also get in touch with relatives who live miles away and it gets hard to see them from time to time. Now on social media, you also have your family members added to your account (whether you like it or not!). You share your moments with them in real life and they also become part of the virtual world. Your daily activity is more likely to be part of the cyber world due to growing use of social media by all age groups. And the same way, what goes on in your social media world reflects on your real life interactions as well. Say, you were having a conversation with your best friend on Facebook and you shared a couple of BAE memes that were hilarious. Chances are that when you meet with them the next hour or even the next day, this will become a conversation starter for you. See what we mean? The fine line between your personal life and your virtual line is getting permeable day by day now. You must know this too then; that while you can have some of your most refined and “superb” moments on the internet and social media, you can also have your worst moments with someone. These moments can take place in your day to day interaction or they can simply begin or stem from your social media. Either way, some arguments, actions or words can leave wounds that remain open for a longer time. And so, your relationship with other people can come to an end. This can then make you wish you could cut off all ties with them. While you must have already breached all ties with them in real life, you must have left the ones that exist on the virtual plane because you simply do not know how to celebrate good riddance on social media. But you should know, especially if you are new to the whole social networking fiasco, that you can unfriend on Facebook very easy.
When we say you can unfriend people on Facebook we mean that you can remove them from your friend list. Before we move on with how to go about unfriending people, you should understand the consequences on deciding to unfriend on Facebook. When you unfriend someone on Facebook, you cut down on a social tie. This means you will be unable to get any updates from them. You will be unable to tag them in pictures, posts, comments and so on. With that, you will be unable to post on their Facebook wall. Along with that, you will be unable to view any content on their wall; the only content you will be able to see is the one that will be set for public viewing. The same goes for their profile pictures as well. And along with these consequences, the same will apply to them. They will be unable to see your page as they like. When you unfriend on Facebook however, you both will be able to send each other messages and view old posts which you both shared with each other on your walls, separately. Because when you unfriend on Facebook, it is different than blocking them on Facebook. Still, Facebook does give you the option of blocking the other person when you choose to unfriend on Facebook. In the following section now, we will begin discussing how to unfriend on Facebook. And along with that, if you do not wish to unfriend someone on Facebook, you can make use of other features that allow you to stay friends but they just limit the other person’s accessibility to your activities on Facebook.
Now if you have some very annoying, obnoxious or downright irritating and blood-boiling people added in your Facebook account, there are three ways that do a really good job at allowing you to get rid of them. Once you choose any one of these and apply them, you will surely have a celebratory party after that will mark a new era of your life; the one where you can finally give yourself some peace of mind:
If you have someone in your friend list who is your ex-partner, for example, or a person from school who refuses to leave you alone and let you mind your own business, you can unfriend on Facebook by taking the following steps:
- The first thing you must do is you must open your Facebook application or website in your browser to open your Facebook page immediately.
- From this page, you will go to your wall and click on “Friends”. A list of all the people with whom you are friends with will then appear.
- From this list, you can begin to locate the person who has become the reason of unrest in your life.
- Now once you have found them on Facebook, you will hover your mouse or cursor on their name and click on it (right click). This will open a small list of actions that you can take against them.
- From this popup list you have the option to Unfriend on Facebook at the very end.
- You will click on this option if you are sure to proceed. Even if you are not, do not worry. Facebook will ask you to confirm your action one more time. If you are sure, you can go ahead and click on “Unfriend” once again and this will remove them from your life.
Now there is a shorter way you can take if you are certain about the name of the person you wish to unfriend. Facebook application and even the website has search bars everywhere. You simply have to type their name in the search bar and then from the list that will appear, you will select their name. This will take you to their Facebook wall immediately. From their wall, along with their name you will notice a gear icon. When you will click on this icon, it will open the same popup list as before. From this popup list now, you simply have to select unfriend on Facebook and proceed with your action. And they will be removed. Other times if you cannot search for their name, you might see their name appear on your News Feed because they might have shared a post or a status on Facebook. You simply have to click on their hyperlinked name from there and this will once again lead you to their Facebook page and you can follow the same instructions. Now one thing that you must note down is that the person you unfriend will not get a notification by you directly. On Facebook you only get a notification when someone accepts your Friend request. But if you have unfriended someone on Facebook, they might get an idea when they notice that they are unable to see any posts from you. They are unable to tag you and so on. This can turn ugly if things did not end on mutual grounds. They might just begin to send you messages in your inbox or begin to chase you in real life. Now they have police warrants for that thing but on social media, Facebook has the option for blocking.
If you are wondering how to block them, that is your second way of getting rid of someone. What you need to do is, you need to follow the same steps but this time, instead of selecting unfriend on Facebook, you will select block on Facebook from the popup list. when you select this option, it will allow you to unfriend them automatically. If you have already unfriended them and they are still messaging you, open their Facebook page once again and you will see the option for blocking them immediately. Click on it and you will be able to restrain any activity from them.
Now a third way to get rid of somebody annoying is more milder. If you have someone who you think should not be seeing some personal content that you have shared on Facebook but you do not wish to unfriend them on Facebook (for example, your parents or your siblings because they just tell on you all the time!), you can restrict their access to your content. In order to do this, you need to search for them in your friend list or you can simply use your search bar to look for them. Once you find them, click on the gear icon again and within the popup list you will have the option that will allow you to add them to a restricted list. You will select this option and then they will only be able to view posts from you that come with a public setting.
Happy unfriending people then!
Michelle 
Adeline