How I Cleaned Up My Facebook Feed

I tried something with my Facebook account. Throughout the month of April,  I snoozed for 30 days every Page that showed up in my newsfeed. All of them. I wanted to know if I would miss seeing them. No surprise, I did not.
There were some other things I discovered about myself and my Facebook habits. So I made some adjustments to how I use and interact with Facebook. 

Here are some things I learned while Pages were Snoozed:

1) Once the page posts stopped showing up, I did not miss them. Not once did I wonder what was happening with any of them.
2) It took a lot less time to scroll through all the new posts. The Recents tab on the app is great for this purpose. Result: I spent a lot less time on Facebook. A lot less.
3) Without the extra noise, I could see more clearly what real people and actual friends were posting and sharing. This was enlightening. Quite a bit of it wasn't original content; most was reshared content that I didn't care for or agree with. I flat out Blocked these kinds of Pages since I didn't want to see them at all going forward.
3) I made some tough decisions about FB connections with former coworkers. If we are connected on LinkedIn and don't have a relationship outside of the workplace, I unfriended these folks. For networking purposes, they can still reach me via LinkedIn messaging. They don't need to see pics of my kids or read stupid comments I make on my goofy friends' posts.
4) Furthermore, was able to connect more personally with what friends were composing from scratch. Not copy/pasting, not sharing from someone else. Just the bare bones of their lives. I see you now, friend.

Things I learned as Pages began to reappear in my Newsfeed:

1) I was Following Pages from previous broadcast and marketing jobs going back almost 10 years. I'm talking about clients that I had been obligated to Like in order to artificially inflate their number of Followers. There were community organizations I followed so I could promote/share their events on the radio. As these Pages began to reappear in my Newsfeed, I realized how little interest I had in these pages now that the obligation to promote them and entertain an audience was gone.

2) I could get rid of Pages that I had Liked and Followed for college and for job hunting purposes. Instead, I connected to most of these on LinkedIn which is more appropriate venue for professional interaction.

3) Like a lot of people do, I had sought out as many new and interesting Pages as I could find to add flavor and new content to my Newsfeed. Lots of clutter in this department. In fact, I learned one Page that I had Liked for its constant flow of kitty memes had been sold and instead of cats was now posting multiple ads for casino slots everyday. In my drone of endless scrolling, I had never noticed; I had simply scrolled past and ignored the ads. Never noticed there were fewer cat posts because I'd diluted my Feed with so much other garbage.

4) What was most amazing to realize was that as Pages reappeared, I could feel the negative energy of slanted messaging. Viewpoints I thought I agreed with delivered in an unsavory way got Unliked quickly and without remorse.

What it's been like since the cleanse:

1) I'm seeing more posts from real people, fewer posts from entities.

2) I'm getting more notifications when my friends interact with other people and Pages. Frankly, Facebook has run out of other crap to feed me; it scrambles for content now.

3) Speaking of crap, yes, I get tons of ads now, too. But I've gotten the impression that other people are also seeing waves of ads, so maybe the influx is just coincidental. 

4) It takes me less time to read through Recent posts to get down to the posts I've already seen. Scroll time is shorter meaning I spend less time on Facebook.

Bonus: Did you know that in many cases you have the option to Follow a Page rather than Like it? FB uses Likes to market to your connections; it feeds ads to your friends with the notation "Roses likes this Page". I bet you've seen this, but haven't really SEEN it.
Now that I've Unliked loads of Pages, my friends will be subjected to fewer Sponsored Posts. You're welcome.

I enjoyed this experiment quite a bit. There's more fine tuning to be done, so I'll probably launch another 30 day cleanse again before the year passes.
If you try this, I'd LOVE to hear what kind of experience you have. Please check back and let me know.