Spring cleaning -- both offline and online

It’s not officially Spring just yet, even though we have been having some beautiful and sunny weather here in Eugene, but I’m already starting to do some “Spring cleaning” around the house. Getting rid of things we don’t want/need, minimizing what we have too much of, and just getting things organized.

And I have noticed that as I have been doing this offline, I am starting to do it online, as well. Today, for example, I unfollowed over a hundred people on Twitter. I unfollowed them because I was either no longer interested in them or what they do, or I was not getting followed back. (Shallow, I know, but I don’t care.) With writers, that’s especially true. If I support a writer, I feel that writer should support me in return. Some awesome authors out there are definitely doing just that, and I give mad props to celebrities I’ve followed who follow back and actually communicate. (Communication is one of the key factors I use on whether or not I follow people on social media.) I understand people are busy and can't really keep up with everybody that follows them on Twitter, so it's nice when they do. But I get it that businesses, sports teams and major newspapers, etc., typically don't just follow everyone back. It's the other writers out there and people I KNOW who I would like a follow back from. (Though I am more patient with people I know in real life.) Anyway, I just felt it was time. So I got some of that done today. I’ll be doing the same thing with my Facebook account as well as other Internet sites that I frequent. It's just time to "clean virtual house."

I find it interesting that I am doing this “Spring cleaning” on the Internet. Granted, sometimes I’ll update sites and make pages a little more current, but that’s something I’ll do every once in a while. Or with just a few sites. Right now, though, I’m definitely “cleaning virtual house” with everything I’m involved with online. I just feel better if everything is more current and just the way I would want it to be.

This just may be a new trend for a lot of people, doing the “Spring cleaning” online as well as offline. It only goes to show just how much of our lives are connected to the Internet and how we’d want everything to reflect our lives a little more accurately.