The other day I posted a picture of Sumo on Facebook – Isn’t he cute? I digress… After posting that picture – friend and fellow blogger Casey Palmer and I started a conversation and out of nowhere “BAM” someone posted this:
“Do u live on face book? (is Facebook one word or 2…who cares). 1post per day is plenty…seriously.”
I felt so embarrassed for him (yes, for him). I forget that there are people out there who don’t use social media for anything and especially not way I do.
At All.
Ever.
It’s like they refuse to look at anything online with the exception of porn and using Google to find movie times.
Having said that I can understand the frustration of constant and annoying status updates from people you’re not that close to, people that haven’t anything interesting to say / share or let’s not forget the constant passive aggressive stylings of Mr. Negative Guy.
If you’d like to quiet your feed here are some easy steps you can take:
One Person at A Time
- Go to the profile page of the “Offender” (In this case me)
- Mouse over the “Friends Button” (located to the right of the page and is below the cover photo)
- Click on the “Get Notifications” Menu item thus removing the check mark.
… and that will rid your feed of that annoying person’s status updates.
Looking to quiet a group? That’s pretty easy too!
- Click on the Home button on the top right of your page.
- Then look to the left navigation and mouse over the “Friends” link and click on more
- Click on “+ Create List”
- Name your list and start adding the people / offenders you would like to add to your list.
- Click “Create”
- (Just a few small steps left…) Click on the “Manage List” button at the top right of the page just under your home button.
- Click on “Choose Update Types…”
- You can now deselect the types of updates you would like to receive from the people in this list. (I would suggest deselecting everything if you find these people generally annoying.)
Now that you know how to control what you see in your feed, using lists can help you see more of people that you may like or even limit what people see about you! I know that some of us like to play games on FB but don’t want the world to know, you can use lists to create a group that can see your game updates. (A discussion for another blog post).
Have you had an awkward experience on FB? Post about your experience below and let us know how you resolved it! Also, if you need any help with lists or blocking applications send me an email.
This post has me singing Enjoy the Silence in my head.
Oct 15, 2012 @ 16:07:33
Love this post! Like I wanted to say in the original thread, the only people who could complain about your overuse of Facebook is people who don’t have a complete understanding of WHY you’re so immersed in social media and what it does for you and your life.
For me, I wouldn’t be inspired to create as much as I do or interact with people so readily had Facebook not readied me for it. I wouldn’t know about all of the cool things that Toronto has to offer without really getting as deep into Twitter as I have over the last few years. There’s always another side to the story, and I feel that we need to look at that before we can criticize the approaches taken by others.
I regularly curate my social media lists to make sure that I’m getting the maximum value out of them — what people need to remember is that THEY’RE in control of the tools they use; not the other way around.
–case p.
Oct 15, 2012 @ 16:34:26
Thanks for the comment Casey!
We are pretty lucky to have social media in our lives. I’ve been able to experience so much because of it.
Also, Lists rock. I use them in and for everything. You’re so right about their use.