By: Cinthia Singleton
Photo Credit: Anum Tariq
Everyone, it seems, is on Facebook now. Neighbors. Childhood friends. Relatives we adore and the ones we don’t so much. Your favorite nephew. Long lost loves and the exes who live in Texas. Co-workers. Facebook has become the town watering hole and town crier.
People just want to connect and keep in touch, and share. But do we need to share everything in order to keep in touch and maintain relationships?
Photos of babies, puppies and kitties, wedding, meals, renovations, new cars, vacations.
Passionate opinions on and rants about politics, religion, new tv shows, re-runs, how people dress in Walmart. Cute memes and photos of animal babies so we don’t have to address the touchy subjects in mixed company.
So much ‘information’ all at once, some pertinent and some just TMI (if not downright unnecessary), but certainly a flood of it that seems uncontrollable. Or is it?
Not if you manage your feed. Here’s how, in a few simple steps from the moment you friend someone:
1) In your Friends section, go to Recently Added and put them into a Category. Facebook gives you two to start, Friends and Acquaintances, but you can create additional ones as you wish, i.e. Family, Work, High School, Choir, Summer Camp, Aerobics Class, Poker Buddies, Reunion Committee and so forth. This way when you are in the mood to catch up with those of a particular community or interest base, you can just click and then skim through its own feed.
2) Go to your new friend’s actual page and decide whether to Follow them or not. It’s not a forever or permanent decision; you can opt in and out depending on whether you like what you see in your feed. If you decide to un-Follow them altogether, you can use Step 1) to review their posts on a ‘need to know’ basis… or when you think of that person and are just plain curious.
Same goes for groups you join but it’s under a different name - Notifications. Here you can change what you see in your feed from All Posts to Off completely.
3) If Facebook friends post things that bring you down, irritate or go against your core, unfollow them. Of course if it gets really bad you can un-friend them and if they truly offend, there is the big Block option, but try unfollowing them first; many are surprised how discreet and diplomatic an option this can be. A nice tool in the box during a political season.
4) You adore Great Aunt Tilly and her day to day adventures as well as goofing with her funny, blue-haired friends in Facebooklandia. But all day? Don’t these people have things to do? lol You could unfollow her but then you’d miss out on the laughs. Did you know that there’s the option to turn off the notifications on posts in which you participated? There is!
These tips - simple and easy - are a great way to re-gain control over something that seems both frenetic and not going away anytime soon. Facebook. It has become a great way to keep in touch, exchange ideas and share common goals; it’s a much better one with a little organization to the feed and its flow.
Are we under their control or are they under our control, or what? Push the button.
