Old irl friends on instagram that you haven't talked to in 10+ years: unfollow or root for at distance by likes only?

[OneSunshineBee]

I feel so weird about old friends on social media.

It feels nice in a way to like each others pictures every now and then, like you are saying "hey, I will always support you in my heart even if we don't talk anymore"

But it's also soo weird?! Like we don't know each other anymore and wouldn't be in contact at all if it wasn't for half assed likes on every other social media post (with the exception if we unlikely enough would run into each other on the street and spend 5 minutes catching up, saying we should meet up sometime and never do.)

How do you deal with it?

On the fence about unfollowing & remove them in order to move on or just accepting "that's life" nowadays with social media.

How I deal with it is I almost never watch people’s instagram stories. If I don’t spend time with you IRL or communicate with you off SM, I’m not going to watch your stories. Posts I might see pop up on my feed, and will ‘like’ them if I like the post. I’m not bothered about not having seen the person in 10 years. A nice photo is a nice photo, I’m pretty liberal with likes in that respect.

Funny enough hubby and I got rid of all that last year and tbh it's the best thing we did. Don't realise how much it silently affects you and all the stupid must like in case I offend or wasted time etc best thing we ever did 😉

I have a few people who I was friendly with at school as FB friends. I haven’t seen them since school (over twenty years ago) but I quite like seeing their posts and watching their children grow up etc. I don’t ‘like’ everything they post and they don’t ‘like’ everything I post. I did a FB friends cull recently and got rid of some local people I’ve met over the last few years but haven’t been in touch with recently, but I kept the school friends.

I have loads of old school friends on social media. It’s nice to see how life turned out for them, and I do genuinely enjoy seeing nice updates about their life. If I saw them in the street i’d have a chat and go for a coffee, but i’d never arrange a meet up. I am still close friends with my best pals from school. Even though I live 250 miles away now, I still message regularly, and go and visit them when i’m in the area. I’d be on a train tomorrow if any of them needed me, and have done when parents have died etc. I am quite a nostalgic person. If you want a friend clear out, then do it.

Surely, it’s nice to know what people are up to. I’ve moved to the other side of the world from where I grew up (also lived in a couple other countries in between), I can’t physically see old friends because it’s like a 10 hour flight. That’s fine. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I barely see my friends who live in the same village because life is busy. I still enjoy chatting with them from time to time and seeing what they’re up to.

Friendships change and evolve as you get older anyway. If it wasn’t for social media, I wouldn’t have the time and energy to keep in touch with them at all, so I’m grateful for it. I actually have some old friends who have been a lovely support for me through tough times even though we haven’t seen each other in years.