Delete. Delete. Delete. I spent two hours one night deleting and untagging myself from pictures on Facebook. I didn’t delete everything from my page, just the pictures I felt no longer represent me. Not that I was ever the type to post wild partying pictures, but many pictures that were on my page I now look at as irrelevant or pointless to have shared. This is especially true because I am not as active on Facebook as I was some years back.
Back then having a constant stream of Facebook status updates and creating photo albums, with pictures of all the fun things my friends and I did over the weekend, was an absolute must. I used to feel my likability was determined by how active I was on Facebook and the number of “friends” I had.

I remember when Facebook was just for college students- it was fun. But when it transitioned to being open to everyone, everything changed. For me, Facebook has turned into the land of ultrasound pictures, children school pictures, and old news (that twitter discussed days ago). And for many of us, our Facebook feeds are filled with family members who comment on and question every single thing that someone posts.

When this became too frequent, I started focusing more on Instagram and Twitter, and left Facebook to the wayside. Only to visit when completely bored out of my mind.

Which was the case the night of my Facebook clean up. Since no one was posting anything interesting, I decided to look through my old pictures. That section was filled with pictures of people who I haven’t seen or spoke to in years, and other random photos that were posted out of boredom while at work. It felt weird looking at all these pictures. It was like looking at someone else…the person I use to be. Not who I am today. And that’s when I said it, “All of these need to go!” and then I did it.

I credit my clean up to nothing other than me simply growing up.

We have definitely become a society of people who over share; social media is very enticing. Logging in to Facebook and being asked “What’s on your mind?” makes you want to follow suit and add your own stuff.

This is especially tempting when you’re bored and have nothing to do. Social media can easily become an entertaining pastime. When I worked a 9-5 job and had to sit at a computer all day long, Facebook single handedly got me through each day. Facebook was my lifeline to what was going on in the world, while I was trapped in my cubicle.

But with age comes lessons, and I have learned that everything I do does not have to be shared online. People don’t always need to know where I am, what I’m doing, or who I’m with. And now when I actually do post to Facebook, I’m always met with responses like, “Where have you been?” and “It’s like a surprise when you post, because it rarely happens.” I love this, I feel it adds an air of mystery to my life.

As I write this, I’m realizing that when I ditched Facebook for Instagram and twitter, In the beginning, I may have went overboard with my Instagram posts and that page may also need some clean up time too.

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TAMIKABURGESSTamika Burgess is an NYC based writer, blogger, and editor. Her articles have been featured on various sites and she is a contributor for For Women, To Women. She is also the force behind The Essence of Me; where she blogs about all things that catch her attention and sparks a reaction. // Twitter

Image Source: “Ralph in Gear”, ELLE US, April 1990 // Photographer: Marc Hispard // Model: Nadege du Bospertus