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Over the weekend, I read Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport, and I started really looking at my social media usage. I soon concluded that I needed to unfollow everyone on Facebook. You probably came to this page because you want to do so as well, so let me tell you how.
I realized that while I find value in using Facebook Messenger to contact my friends, I don't enjoy looking at my Newsfeed updates. It's not that I'm not interested in my friends' lives, but I would rather save the updates for in-person communication where it's most rewarding.
Yet, I have the habit of subconsciously opening Facebook when I'm bored. On the off chance that I subconsciously open up Facebook, I decided that I wanted nothing on my Newsfeed to prevent mindless browsing.
I decided that I wanted to unfollow everyone on Facebook. As a business that makes money on keeping your engagement, Facebook does not provide an easy way to unfollow all your friends at once.
Here is the easiest way to unfollow everyone on Facebook that I found.
Step 1: Go to Newsfeed Preferences
After you logged in to your Facebook home page, click on the down arrow on the top right to show a menu and select Newsfeed Preferences.
Step 2: Select “Unfollow people and groups to hide their posts”.
You'll see a list of all accounts you are following (which will appear on your Newsfeed.
Step 3: Click on each avatar to unfollow
You can then one-click to unfollow each account. Unfortunately, there is no way to select it all at a time so you would have to click on each account to unfollow. I created a simple script with Keyboard Maestro to click on the 9 avatars with a hotkey.
Once you do so, a blue “Unfollowed” tag should appear below their name.
That's it. Once you've unfollowed everyone, you should see that your Newsfeed is empty, freeing you from unnecessary digital distractions.
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If you have the Facebook app on your phone which I still keep for adding new friends, you'll see that it says “Posts can't be loaded right now.”
As you know, Facebook consistently updates the interface of their platform, so if you find this method to stop working, please let me know in the comments, and I'll update this article. Even better, tell me a better way to do it so I can share it with all the digital minimalists.
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Quite an easy and description guide
Thank you!! I felt a huge sense of relief at every person/group I unselected. I didn’t go for everyone because I want to make FB a place where I can actually connect with the people I care to stay in touch with, but it was somehow SO much easier to unfollow everyone than to unfriend. I have had a big ethical dilemma about unfriending and what it says to people etc. This way feels like a sneaky way to get a little of my life and sanity back. Cheers!!
Hi, it doesn’t work for me. I can unfollow pages and groups, but only like 10 friends appeared on the page to unfollow. I am not able to unfollow everyone else through that page, since they do not appear. When I select ‘Friends only’, it is empty…
Thank you so much, this was really helpful. I wish I can buy you a coffee now, But I guess tomorrow will be a better day.