Muting the feed also muted people I missed

My feed had become a corridor of announcements, bump photographs and products promising control. I muted accounts quickly one night and felt immediate relief. A week later I realised I had also stopped seeing a close friend’s ordinary posts—her terrible baking, her dog, the street outside her window.

I sent her a message that did not mention algorithms. I said I was taking space from pregnancy content but still wanted to know about her life. She began sending me the occasional photo directly. I could open it when I had room.

I also unfollowed several commercial accounts rather than only muting friends. That changed the feed more than I expected. When an announcement caught me unexpectedly, I stopped treating the reaction as evidence that I was unkind.

Curation did not become a perfect boundary. Platforms still suggested content; sometimes curiosity pulled me back. I made a small folder of people I wanted to contact directly so friendship was not dependent on what the feed chose to show.

I miss some of the ease of scrolling through everyone’s life. But distance from content does not have to mean distance from people. I can choose a quieter door into the relationships I want to keep.