Like many people who grew up with social media gaining traction, I have let social media become a huge part of my life. I use it to network, to gain views for my articles, and, essentially, to show off my life. It wasn't until recently that I really began to grow a discomfort with it.

I've gone through social media cleanses just like everyone else. Those couple of weeks or months where you just delete all your apps to feel free. Even doing that, I still felt an itch to re-download and check my apps all the time.

After graduating high school, I weeded out a few people from my friend and follower list. Just as a big "F you!" after graduating. Yet, a couple years have gone by, and I still found myself scrolling through and seeing photos of people that may as well be strangers, considering I hadn't seen them since the date of my graduation.

I recently went on the biggest social media purge of my life. I was scrolling through deleting basically everyone I no longer had contact with, or never had contact with in the first place. Even people that I deemed pretty nice and pleasant towards me. I saw no reason for them to know the happenings of my personal life if I hadn't spoken to them in months or years.

I deleted a total of 297 Facebook friends and 336 Instagram followers.

It felt weird posting my first Insta story and only getting about 50 views on it, but wow, it felt good. I no longer had the weight of thinking I was mean or petty for deleting people weighing on me. I no longer had to worry about wanting my posts to look exactly a certain way, keeping up with a theme, posting at prime post hours, or deeming my worth based on how many likes I got.

Social media is both a blessing and a curse.

The tools it provides us with making it much easier to stay connected with people and make new connections along the way. It's great for publicity, especially for people promoting a business and people promoting their art, like music or writing.

Yet, at the same time, we all have to be careful of walking that line between a healthy outlet and an obsession. Instagram used to be the first thing I checked in the morning and the last thing I looked at falling asleep. The second I would receive a notification, I would immediately check it. Now that I have fewer people to receive notifications from, that habit has become much less frequent.

Once I let go of that worry about what people would think if they had found out I deleted them, I became much less dependent on social media. Over half of the people I deleted were people I barely ever spoke to in the first place, so I doubt they are checking to see if I removed them.

Everyone's relationship with social media is different. But, if it's been a few years since graduating high school for you, and you're looking to clean up your digital footprint, it may be time to do some deep cleansing of your profiles.