Updated: When I started working on this post, it was as a compliment to my other Two for Tuesday post. However, after doing some diligent fact checking…okay I went to grab a screen capture and found that my information is now obsolete. Apparently Facebook changed things again!
Still the point in this post still stands. There are alternatives to simply unfriending/defriending someone just because they annoy you on Facebook. Note: the Facebook Action is properly called Unfriend, but it is referred to in social media jargon as de-friending.
People in the Facebook World tend to be reactionary. Over-reactionary in fact. Unless you only have single digit friends and they are clones of yourself, chances are one or more of your friends have a slightly different viewpoint, philosophy or Belief System on everything from key subjects (abortion, death penalty, politics, even sports team) to non-issues like whether ketchup belongs on a hotdog.
When you unfriend someone on Facebook this is what happens
1. That person does not appear on your Facebook friends list
2. You can see each other on Facebook search
3. You can still message each other
4. You can read the other person’s wall
5. You can still re-add each other as friendsSource: http://sociolatte.com/difference-between-unfriend-and-block-on-facebook/
You probably never even realized that your friend feels differently than you because in real life, you don’t connect over your differences, you connect over common ground. You aren’t friends with Fred from your Softball League because you respect that his stance on government spending, while vastly different than yours, is well thought out and articulated. You’re friends because he can field a double play, picks up the first round and played wingman for you that time.
When you unfriend someone on Facebook this is what happens
1. That person does not appear on your Facebook friends list
2. You can see each other on Facebook search
3. You can still message each other
4. You can read the other person’s wall
5. You can still re-add each other as friendsSource: http://sociolatte.com/difference-between-unfriend-and-block-on-facebook/
Then you find out that he doesn’t see something like the George Zimmerman Trial, Malaysian Flight MH17 or whatever current event is cluttering the news wires the same way you do. To each their own right? Except he also cannot seem to shut up about it either. If you defriend them on Facebook, you might regret it later when you see them In Real Life.
So if you want to not see rants from Uncle Racist or Cousin Tree Hugger or just not have your feeds cluttered with social political bullshit during the upcoming mid-term elections, you can hide the person from your feed.
I’m not sure if this can be done easily from a phone or tablet app so you might have to log into a good old fashioned browser to do this, but trust me: it’s worth it.
Step 1) click on your friend’s profile (or alternatively, hover your mouse over your friend’s profile)
Step 2) highlight Get Notifications
Step 3) Choose the level that fits your needs: All Updates | Most Updates | Only Important
Note: as mentioned above, this refinement doesn’t work anymore. Typical Facebook! Back in the day, you could hover your mouse and choose See Less of/See More of a person. Then they had Notification Settings. Now you have to do an all or nothing.
I did find a workaround along with a few more great hacks at BuzzFeed, including a way to clean up your news feeds. Click here while logged in to Facebook and you will be taken to a page full of friends you haven’t interacted with in a while. Click all of the ones you want to see less in your News Feed.
__
If you like what you read, please follow me on Twitter and like Mysteries of Life on Facebook and be sure to roll over the Like button, then click “get notifications” on the drop-down menu, that way Mark Zuckerberg’s new filtering system won’t keep you from knowing when I post something.
Type your email address in the box and click the “create subscription” button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.
therunninggod 