Somebody asks why I follow people. My answer begins with a confession: I send plenty of requests. I am curious. Then I open a profile and sometimes wonder what I came there for.

Another carefully framed holiday. Another angle on the same lifestyle. Everything looks desirable, but I leave without a new thought.

I follow because I want to encounter a mind, not only an image. That is the point of this video.

What makes me stay

An idea I had not considered. A perspective I could not reach on my own. Somebody making something, learning in public or showing work I can support.

This is a preference, not a rule everybody owes me. A person can share a beach photograph simply because they enjoyed the beach. Nobody has to turn a personal profile into a school. But I can decide what I want in the place where I spend my attention.

And fun counts. Something that makes me laugh can belong there too. I do not need every post to be productive. I want the experience to feel alive rather than like an endless competition to look successful.

What makes an account worth following to me. Ideas: A thought I had not reached alone.. Creation: Work I can learn from or support.. Connection: Humour, friendship or a perspective that opens something.
Personal criteria from the video, not a ranking of people.

A feed is also a series of choices

The practical question is small: after spending time with this account, what stays with me?

Maybe it is a useful technique. Maybe it is affection for a friend. Maybe it is an urge to build. Or perhaps I cannot name anything except the feeling that my own ordinary day is somehow inadequate.

That last feeling is a reason to look more carefully, not proof that the person posting is dishonest. A feed shows selected moments. I do not know the whole life behind them, and the video’s frustration about a “fake lifestyle” should not become an accusation against someone I cannot assess.

Try a small attention review

Take ten accounts you regularly see. For each, write one sentence about what you value. If an account no longer fits, decide whether to keep following, reduce its presence or unfollow. Meta’s own wellbeing guidance lists tools for adjusting what you see, including unfollowing and hiding suggested posts. ¹

A small review of your feed. Choose ten: Start with accounts you see regularly.. Name the value: Write one sentence about what stays with you.. Make a choice: Keep, reduce or unfollow according to your own preference.
An optional editorial exercise. Ten is illustrative, not evidence-based.

Ten is an arbitrary starting point, not a scientifically validated dose. There is no score to optimise and no need to turn this into another obligation. The exercise just makes a usually automatic decision visible.

You can appreciate a person without subscribing to everything they publish. And you can follow someone very different from you because they make you think.

That is what I am looking for: something that opens a window in my head.

Sources and calculation notes

  • ¹ Meta Safety Center: wellbeing tools, checked 26 September 2026. Specific controls can vary by service and interface.

  • The article expands the preferences expressed in the original caption and audio. It does not claim to measure the effects of social media or identify another person’s life as fake.

  • The ten-account review and both diagrams are editorial exercises, not research findings or health interventions.

  • Original video and thumbnail: Eduard Luta on TikTok. Published 2026-09-10. Research checked 26 September 2026.