Soft blocking refers to the act of blocking someone on social media and then unblocking them immediately after so that you are no longer following one another. I recently discovered what this was when one of my (former) friends did this to me.
I get it. People move on from their lives and no longer want to see me in their feed. I can imagine certain things I post can be annoying to people who don’t want to see recurring advertisements for this blog on their newsfeed. I do my best to be cognizant of them, and have also refrained from posting anything deeply controversial or even an ounce of politics in nature anymore on Instagram for this very reason.
And yet, it’s okay. Just like friends come and go in the real world, friends will come and go in the virtual world. I never really unfollow anyone unless there’s a legitimate reason. Even if their posts are somewhat annoying, I’d rather mute them then anything else.
Still, I do the following once a month to make sure I am unfollowing anyone that unfollows me online. I download all my data from Instagram, use listdiff.com to compare the algorithmic data between my followers and followers, and immediately delete those that don’t follow me back. If they don’t see me as important enough to keep tabs on, I don’t feel the need to keep tabs on them either. It might seem a little petty, but I think it actually makes a lot of sense if you think about it. Still, I am very sad every time I have to do so, because it reminds me of another friend I have already lost over the years.
Fun fact: Katherine once deleted me from facebook.
