I don’t know about you, but for most people, Twitter is an entire universe in which the concept of “sparking joy” doesn’t really seem to apply.
Politicians arguing, trolls trolling, and serious issues that should be talked about in person being hashed out via vitriolic attacks and GIFs? Yeah… I’d rather hang on Instagram with all the pretty plants and smoothie bowls.
Still, it’s still a great source of news and a place to keep up on cultural conversations, so it’s hard to totally quit it.
All of which is why you’ve got to admire a developer who sets out to bring the neat-and-tidy happiness of Marie Kondo’s famed organization method to the platform.
Really: Tokimeki Unfollow is a simple plug-in made to “Konmari your Twitter feed.”
Essentially, it helps you systematically let go of people you’re following whose tweets have become the equivalent of those tight, acid-washed leggings from 1988 that you were really hoping would come back into style—they’re no longer serving you.
Here’s how it works
First, you authorize Tokimeki Unfollow to access your Twitter account, and with one click, it draws your account info into its interface.
Then, the screen tells you how many people you’re following and gives you a few options: whether or not you want to see account bios as you go (say yes to this, or you’ll have a hard time figuring out who people are!), whether you want to save your progress on the server (again, say yes!), and what order you want to wade through your followers in: chronological from your oldest follower, chronological from your newest follower, or random order.
Hit start, and the system begins taking you through the list. For each person, you’ll see the person’s Twitter handle, name, and bio, plus a preview of their feed so you can easily scroll through their recent tweets.
Then, you’ll be presented with a question: Do the tweets still spark joy or feel important to you?
You can choose to keep or unfollow them (or add them to a list)—and so it goes one by one. When you let someone go, Tokimeki prompts you to thank them for their past tweets, and in general, it’s super encouraging and cordial throughout. (Like a super sweet, practical Marie Kondo bot.)
“It’s hard to do this all in one go, so don’t feel bad if you need to take a break,” the system tells you. “I’ll save your progress as you go so you can pick it up again another time.”
I did about 20, and it felt like it would take forever to get through them all, but if you really want to do a deep clean, you can keep coming back to it when you have a few free minutes.
Plus, I chose to to evaluate them in chronological order starting with the first person I ever followed, so there was a bonus to the cleansing process: a little glimpse at the past. When you Konmari your wardrobe, you pick up an old T-shirt you should part with and think about that time you wore it to a concert with your ex-boyfriend when you were 17. When you Konmari your Twitter feed, you see someone you followed a decade ago and remember the craziest co-worker you ever had.
It’s nice when tech tasks come with real-life nostalgia, right?
