How People of the Past Blocked and Unfriended Each Other Before the Internet

Ely Bulnes • Writer and Editor

Oct 28, 2025 7:00 PM EDT

Nowadays, after you've had a falling out with someone, you may "unfriend" them on all forms of social media. If you're feeling particularly bitter, you might even block them, preventing their faces from ever gracing your vision ever again and vice versa. If you've got a ton of pictures of them on your phone, there are even apps that can delete every image of them right off of your phone with a press of a button.

However, before the internet made it so easy to digitally make people disappear, scorned lovers and ex-friends had to do it the old fashion way. Sometimes they used scissions or ink, and other times, a needle and thread. From the Victorian era to the early 2000s when people still printed out their photos at Walgreens, people found all sorts of creative and sometimes unsettling ways to "unfriend" others from their photo albums. It wasn't as quick as an Unfollow button, but it sure was cathartic!