Yesterday, I posted about cleaning up your Facebook and other social media “friends” list. Of course, potential consequences come with this because people will be “people” to take things personally that they have no reasonable cause to do so. That potential awkward moment or situation, immediately or in the future, in person or online, is enough for some people to avoid removing people from their social media friends or following list. So I have an idea to counter that while still allowing you to parse down your friends or followers list.

Post a status to offer people to unfriend or unfollow you, saying how you will not be offended!

If you like, you can give reasons they might want to do that. They can waste less time not seeing your updates in their feeds, for example, but that you could still interact in person if your paths cross and hope to remain friends in real life. They can clean up their list knowing there’d be no consequences from you, at least. Or think of other reasons on your own.

But in offering people to drop you, without being offended, you not only can parse down your list, you will also come across well with your social skills. You’ll be viewed as more secure and comfortable in dealing with people. You’ll also be viewed as knowing what’s important, which is the real interaction.

Just one word of caution with this, though. If you’re going to take the step to drop people from your friends list, do it before you make this offer! If the people you intend to drop become aware and decide not to drop you, then you drop them, that’s going to cause some ruffled feathers for sure!