Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been in the throes of spring cleaning. This year, I decided spring cleaning should apply to my electronic life and once I’m done, my online world should reflect my real world passions. Have you ever looked through the pages you liked on Facebook and thought, “I never use that service or I only liked that page to win something”?

With the introduction of the “like” button, Facebook had us liking status messages, pictures, videos, and articles that flowed by in our news feeds. Then they let websites everywhere add the “like” button to their online destinations. We were free to like articles, videos, and products outside the Facebook sandbox. If you’re anything like me, you see a button and you have a burning desire to push it with the result of liking brands which only hold a passing interest. Sometimes, I wish Staples “easy” button was everywhere so I could click on it and all the ads and clutter from websites would disappear, I digress.
I realized the consequence of clicking on the like button all over the web was creating a mess of my newsfeed within Facebook. Announcements about products or services I have no interest in were overshadowing the status messages of friends and family I really wanted to see.

So one day, I decided to go through all the pages and remove the ones I didn’t absolutely love. I “liked” Corona or Corona Light because if you liked them, they would put your picture on Times Square. I “liked” Bud Light because they had an app that let you show your support for your soccer team in the World Cup. There were several pages I liked to win an iPad that I never won. If you looked at the pages I “liked” you would think I’m a fan huge fan of beer, of which I’m indifferent. These pages were all removed.
There are only about 25 pages I continue to “like”. They are the fan pages of Founder Institute companies, Aston Martin, the Dalai Lama, Engadget, Mashable, TechCrunch, Manny Pacquaio, the UFC, Rafael Marquez, Lionel Messi, FCB Barcelona, and a couple fighters whose news I want to see.

If you were to cut your likes to only the brands and people you love, what would you have left?

Image credit:
http://m.flickr.com/photos/denisdervisevic/4745520501/