Sorting your subscriptions: unfollow what feeds envy or anger
We subscribe to accounts, channels, newsletters, apps, without thinking about it. One by one, they make up the landscape of our days. Some nourish us, others irritate us, make us compare ourselves, draw us into envy, anger or impurity. This quest invites you to unfollow at least one of these accounts today.
What it looks like in your day
Take inventory. Open your subscriptions: social networks, videos, podcasts, newsletters, news accounts, apps. Take a few minutes to go through them.
Ask three questions about each account.
- What does it produce in me? Joy, peace, curiosity, or jealousy, anger, envy, sadness?
- What am I looking for there? Useful information, healthy entertainment, or a way of comparing myself, distracting myself from boredom, feeding a grudge?
- Do I go back by choice or by habit?
Unfollow at least one account. The one that systematically leaves you more agitated, more envious, more irritated, or more tempted. You can “mute” it if a complete break is too hard.
Replace. Follow something that nourishes: a Bible-reading account, an inspiring artist, a quality podcast, news from loved ones.
Note what you feel. In the following days, observe: does your mood change?
Review regularly. This inventory can be redone every quarter.
You don't have to give up everything: the point is to choose what you let into your mind. Most platforms are designed to capture your attention: unfollowing is taking back control.
If you are short on time, a single account is enough. If you are shy, you don't have to justify your decision to anyone. If your work requires certain accounts, sort outside that framework.
What the Bible says
King David makes a resolution:
“I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me.”
“I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes”: the decision comes before the temptation. He chooses what he lets in. Jesus declares that “the light of the body is the eye”: if the eye is sound, the whole body is full of light; if it is bad, the whole body is full of darkness (Matthew 6:22-23). What we look at shapes who we are. And Paul invites us to fix our thoughts on what is true, honorable, pure (Philippians 4:8).
Pitfalls to avoid
Cutting yourself off from everything. The point is not to leave social media, but to choose. Keep what is good and useful.
Unfollowing out of anger. If your gesture comes from a quarrel with someone, notice that your problem may lie elsewhere.
Replacing one impurity with another. Unfollowing one account and following another just as harmful settles nothing.
Staying in a victim position. Platforms are designed to capture your attention, but you keep the freedom to choose. Use it.
Forgetting content you didn't look for. Algorithms offer things you didn't ask for. Learn to report, to hide, to limit.
Today, spot an account that feeds envy, anger or impurity. Unfollow it.