I was desperate for Facebook friends when I first joined the site  in the spring of 2005. It was only open to college students at the time, and I was about to start college in a new state where I knew no one. It was critically important to me that I not look like some friendless loser to my future classmates at the University of Colorado.I became friends with anyone I’d ever heard of who was in college and would have me. I stalked the girls on my floor in my dorm and friended them. Any cute boy I met received a friend request almost immediately. I browsed profiles, picking out interesting people and requesting friendship. I had amassed around 300 “friends” by the time I left Colorado the following spring. I topped out at 450 or so after a while at LSU — especially after Facebook went global. Not even that many, compared to others’ lists, which boast thousands.After a year and a half working in “the real world,” I learned a lot about who my real friends were and the kind of people with whom I wanted to create new friendships.About 300 of my Facebook friends got cut.I unfriended people I’d known my whole life but never liked. Gone were the friends who had changed drastically since high school. Anyone I’d never had a meaningful conversation with in real life was cut. Gone were the ex-boyfriends and their current girlfriends. People I rarely saw in real life — though liked — whose Facebooks were obnoxiously overcrowded with applications and stupid status   updates were cut, too. A lot of my parents’ friends got cut, too, because that’s just awkward. A few things had changed. I’d grown up a lot, and my values had changed, and the qualities I valued in friends changed. Facebook had certainly changed, and now I was seeing information on my newfangled “home page” about people whom I’d formerly been able to be friends with but ignore, and I realized how obnoxious many of those people really were. Facebook had become a way for me to stay in touch with people I was far away from and a way for me to socialize with people I was geographically close to without sacrificing valuable Sara time. And now I go through my friends every so often and re-edit.But you just can’t unfriend some people. Family, current coworkers and current classmates are unimposing enough that I like to avoid the awkwardness and just stay friends with them. But those people I never got to know are usually edited from my friend list once I’m done with those classes or jobs. As crazy and obnoxious as some of my family members are, I keep them around but hide most of their updates. I’ll probably see those people for the rest of my life, and holidays are awkward enough already.At this point in my life, Facebook is a semi-private place where I can say what I want — without fear of judgment — to the people in my life that I truly like or love. I’d be worried about editing or only showing certain versions of myself if I were “friends” with a bunch of people I didn’t know. That sounds stressful and not fun. I’m entirely too old to be worried with how other people perceive or receive me, and I want to enjoy my Facebook, not be harassed by it.Unfriend some people. It’ll improve your quality of life.Sara Boyd is a 23-year-old general studies senior from Baton Rouge. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_sboyd.____Contact Sara Boyd at [email protected]