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If your Facebook News Feed has become a smoldering cauldron of political posts, unwanted videos and angry rants, you may be longing for the days when you saw actual updates from friends you care about the most. If you get frustrated scrolling through your Facebook feed, you’re not alone.
The good news is that you can fix your Facebook News Feed to show more of the posts that interest you and less of the ones that don’t. By taking just a few minutes to fix your Facebook feed, you may be able to enjoy Facebook again.
You can take control of your Facebook feed by adjusting your settings and using tools to make the most of Facebook. No need to unfriend anyone, just set your feed to see what you want to see and hide what you don’t want to see.
Facebook Settings
See Important Friends First
Facebook lets you choose which friends’ posts show at the top of your News Feed. Maybe you have dear friends who don’t post often, but you want to be sure you see their posts first. Or maybe you have Facebook friends you’ve never even met in real life but they post inspirational quotes or fascinating travel photos you don’t want to miss.
You can easily select whose posts you want to see first by changing your News Feed settings.
On the Facebook website, tap the Down arrow in the upper right corner of the blue bar at the top of the screen and choose “News Feed Preferences.”
Then select “Prioritize who to see first.”
Click on the names of people whose posts you want to see at the top of your News Feed.
Then click “Done” at the bottom.
Block Friends’ Posts Without Unfriending Anyone
Similarly, you may be best friends with someone in real life but have no interest in their Facebook posts. Maybe they post angry rants constantly or stupid human tricks videos that hold no interest for you.
Unfriending them may be awkward, but you’d rather not see their posts in your feed.
The good news is that Facebook lets you block friends’ posts from your feed and they’ll never know you blocked them.
To block a friend’s posts from your feed, tap the Down arrow in the upper right corner of the blue bar at the top of Facebook’s website and choose “News Feed Preferences.”
Select “Unfollow people to hide their posts” then select the friends you want to unfollow. This will prevent their posts from appearing in your News Feed.
When you’re finished choosing people whose posts you want to block from your feed, click “Done”.
Block “On This Day” Reminders
Some days are best forgotten. But Facebook can have an annoying habit of reminding you about those unfortunate days with its On This Day feature.
On This Day can be a wonderful reminder of happy events. But sad anniversaries may be difficult enough without Facebook throwing them in your face.
You can turn off all reminders, or block people and dates from On This Day.
To adjust the settings, go to facebook.com/onthisday and click “Preferences” in the upper right side of the page.
You can choose people or dates you’d rather not be reminded of. Facebook lets you select individual dates or a range of dates.
If you don’t want to see any On This Day reminders ever again, choose a range of dates beginning when you first joined Facebook to a date far in the future.
Remove All Politics from Facebook Chrome Extension
Perhaps your frustration with Facebook is that you’re seeing political posts when you would rather not. Or maybe you’d like to take a quick break and enjoy Facebook without politics for a short while.
If you want to see friends’ posts except for the political ones, then you may want to add an extension to your Chrome browser. The extension Remove All Politics from Facebook was developed during the US Presidential election last year and was updated earlier this month.
This extension for Chrome looks for specific keywords related to US politics, then blocks posts containing those words from your Facebook News Feed.
You can add this extension by downloading it from the Chrome Webstore: Remove All Politics from Facebook.
After the extension has been added, click its icon in your Chrome toolbar. You’ll see a list of keywords that will trigger a post being blocked in your Facebook feed.
You cannot add or delete these keywords and the developer warns that memes containing these keywords will not be blocked.
To start using Remove All Politics from Facebook, slide the switch to On and restart your Chrome browser. Posts containing these political keywords should be blocked in your feed.
Your Thoughts
Do you need to fix your Facebook feed? Will you be setting your friends to see first? Will you be blocking any friends’ posts? Do you want to block political posts?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
*Facebook icon in flames (edited) courtesy of StartBloggingOnline.com via Flickr and Creative Commons
Verizon Wireless Unlimited Data Plan
Beginning today, Verizon Wireless is offering an unlimited data plan for its customers in the US.
From Verizon:
Verizon is offering an introductory plan with unlimited data on smartphones and tablets on its 4G LTE network. With Verizon Unlimited, customers also get HD video streaming, Mobile Hotspot, calling and texting to Mexico and Canada and up to 500 MB/day of 4G LTE roaming in Mexico and Canada included.
Pricing:
- $80 for unlimited data, talk and text on smartphones.
- $45 per line for four lines with unlimited data, talk and text on smartphones and tablets
After 22 GB of data usage on a line during any billing cycle Verizon Wireless may prioritize usage behind other customers in the event of network congestion. Customers can add a connected smart watch or other connected devices for $5 each month.
More information is available at the Verizon Wireless website.
Hey Carolyn,
I definitely needed a guide like this.
I am sick of the useless updates. Unfriending isn’t an option. But the method shown above can help.
Now, I can prioritize the people whose feeds are important.
Thanks for the info.
~Ravi
Hi Ravi, Good point. There are plenty of times when unfriending isn’t an option. Maybe you’re Facebook friends with workplace colleagues with whom you have little in common other than work. Unfollow them to remove their posts from your Facebook feed. Problem solved!
Ha Nice one Carolyn,
I have always wondered if I un-friend someone on FB does it send out a message or notification to that person…and will they get offended? This helps a lot…also did you know that the FB memories is not yet rolled out completely? Some of my friends are still in the “waiting list” for that feature…not sure why though.
Hi Praveen, Good question. No, Facebook doesn’t send a notice but your friend may find out you’re no longer friends on Facebook if they try to post on your wall or send you a message and discover you’re not Facebook friends any more.
Better to avoid awkward situations by unfollowing them so you no longer see their posts in your Facebook News Feed. They won’t know about you unfollowing them and you can stay Facebook friends.
Wow, I am surprised that people are still on the waiting list for getting On This Day reminders. Some people love them and some people don’t like them at all. But you can choose whether you want to see them on your News Feed.
Hi Carolyn,
Over the past several years ands two or three elections, I’ve learned to love the Unfollow feature. I haven’t used the prioritize feature yet but think I may set that up now as well. I can see that coming in handy.
Thanks for sharing these features with us!
Bren
Hi Bren, That’s great you’ve been using the Unfollow tool but I think you’ll enjoy your feed even more if you put your most important friends first. Some people like seeing inspirational posts, other like funny memes. The good thing is you can control your feed so you see what you want to see first.
This is exactly what am I searching for. Facebook newsfeed has many information, but sometimes it annoys me. Now I know how to solve that problem. Thanks for sharing Mrs Carolyn. Keep up the great work!
Hi David, You’re not alone. Many people are complaining now that Facebook isn’t what they want it to be. But it can be again if you take a few moments to set your News Feed preferences.
Hi Carolyn,
I knew about it. But I am happy that I read it from your post.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi Robin, Good point, even when we know about these settings we may need a reminder to update our News Feed preferences so Facebook works better for us.
Well I guess most of the people are frustrated with annoying facebook friends. I had unfriended lots of friends and unliked lot of pages.
These tips are really helpful..
Thanks
Hi Vinod, Yes, I have heard from many people that they either have quit going on Facebook or have closed their accounts because they don’t like what they’re seeing on their News Feeds.
But they can still go on Facebook and see the posts and people they want to by adjusting their settings and using the Chrome extension.