Facebook Clutter

[Natasha]

Recently I started feeling a bit conflicted about what to do with my facebook newsfeed. I have only a little over 120 friends, but with this pandemic and upcoming elections the newsfeed has become ridiculous. I wouldn't want to unfriend people and if to unfollow, then what's the point of keeping them on the list of friends in the first place. I also don't want to shut down the existing account and create another one with a new selected number of friends. I don't really spend much time on there and keep it to just stay in touch with close friends and family some of which are from my hometown in Europe. And I have a coupe of private groups I like to participate in.

How would you handle this? Thanks so much for your feedback 

[bejapuskas]

Unfollow them  

[michellew]

I've actually unfollowed everyone on so that I have virtually no news feed, apart from one or two groups that I enjoy the content (horse photography mainly).  All it means is if I want to see what someone is up to I have to go to their profile and look which I rarely do lol...  I'm quietly printing off the photos from over the years that I want to keep with a view to maybe ditching it entirely one day in the future.  I do find the lack of news feed means a reduced lure, I can keep facebook in its place rather than letting it lead me by the nose and losing hours to it.

Edited April 25, 2020 by michellew
Remembered something I wanted to add

[Natasha]

@bejapuskas I have a few already, but then what's the point of even have them as fb friends if you'll never interact or see each other posts? 

[Natasha]

@michellew I have a few that I already unfollowed and have no desire to check their status updates. I also keep catching myself wanting to just clean up the list of 'friends' who I even never interact with and visa versa. But then a 'good girl' syndrome kicks in and I start feeling bad lol It's become quite a battle when it shouldn't be 

[GodDesireOnlyLove]

30 minutes ago, michellew said:

I've actually unfollowed everyone on so that I have virtually no news feed, apart from one or two groups that I enjoy the content (horse photography mainly).  All it means is if I want to see what someone is up to I have to go to their profile and look which I rarely do lol...  I'm quietly printing off the photos from over the years that I want to keep with a view to maybe ditching it entirely one day in the future.  I do find the lack of news feed means a reduced lure, I can keep facebook in its place rather than letting it lead me by the nose and losing hours to it.

 

[michellew]

@Natasha It's easier said than done isn't it!  Firstly remind yourself that the makers of facebook intentionally made it addictive.  It's a tool at the end of the day and if you find it useful (I use it to keep in touch with my adult son), make it work for you.  If that means decimating your news feed, believe when I say I don't miss it -  It's a primary weapon in the facebook armory to keep you there another 5 minutes.  I'm old enough to remember the days before computers, let alone before facebook, so I grew up in a world where if you didn't write actual letters to people who moved away, you lost touch.  As I never got round to sending these letters to people, I often lost touch and then came the days of friends reunited and facebook.  I can say hand on heart that there was a reason most of the time that I lost touch lol... Quite often people just want to be nosey, there's no real interest in me as a person.  Now, we have facebook and those people we'd have lost touch with are forever on our facebook feeds, and we're faced with an actual decision of whether or not to jettison them from our consciousness.  Maybe put a note at the top of your feed saying you're going to delete people that you don't speak to, but if they want to stay, do get in touch?  Then grab that bull by the horns and get deleting  

[Natasha]

36 minutes ago, michellew said:

I do find the lack of news feed means a reduced lure, I can keep facebook in its place rather than letting it lead me by the nose and losing hours to it.

Yes. Just unfollowed everyone except for a few that I interact with on a regular basis and who don't post a million random thoughts on newsfeed.

[Natasha]

4 minutes ago, michellew said:

@Natasha It's easier said than done isn't it!  Firstly remind yourself that the makers of facebook intentionally made it addictive.  It's a tool at the end of the day and if you find it useful (I use it to keep in touch with my adult son), make it work for you.  If that means decimating your news feed, believe when I say I don't miss it -  It's a primary weapon in the facebook armory to keep you there another 5 minutes.  I'm old enough to remember the days before computers, let alone before facebook, so I grew up in a world where if you didn't write actual letters to people who moved away, you lost touch.  As I never got round to sending these letters to people, I often lost touch and then came the days of friends reunited and facebook.  I can say hand on heart that there was a reason most of the time that I lost touch lol... Quite often people just want to be nosey, there's no real interest in me as a person.  Now, we have facebook and those people we'd have lost touch with are forever on our facebook feeds, and we're faced with an actual decision of whether or not to jettison them from our consciousness.  Maybe put a note at the top of your feed saying you're going to delete people that you don't speak to, but if they want to stay, do get in touch?  Then grab that bull by the horns and get deleting  

My thoughts exactly - addiction. Just did the first step by unfollowing those who I'd rather delete. Will sleep on it for awhile and then start pulling the plug. Feeling better already, thank you! 

[michellew]

@Natasha Good call, enjoy your freedom  

[The observer]

They will still be following you and seeing your activity even if you unfollow them. And they will not get notified when you hit that button and even if they look, they won't be able to know whether you actually follow them or not, so there's nothing to worry about.

[Natasha]

@The observer Good to know, thanks!

Anyone knows how to deactivate so I stop seeing 'Add to your story' updates from people?

@michellew

[michellew]

@Natasha on the desktop version of facebook, on the dropdown where you log out there are 2 options, settings and news feed preferences - go through both these to turn off the various options.  I don't see people's story any more, maybe you need to log out and in again to set that in motion?

[Natasha]

33 minutes ago, michellew said:

@Natasha on the desktop version of facebook, on the dropdown where you log out there are 2 options, settings and news feed preferences - go through both these to turn off the various options.  I don't see people's story any more, maybe you need to log out and in again to set that in motion?

Yes, just looked at it, didn't see any option to remove that feature. It's ok for now. Also made other changes and did some more cleaning up 

[bejapuskas]

@Natasha  I don't know, it's just that sometimes people write you... That's about it

[Hello from Russia]

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/remove-recommendations-yo/hfnghnjkcpgagjbiheidccjnneoipbmb

With this chrome extensions you can turn off certain features in Youtube and Facebook. Ex: you can turn off any recommendations, newsfeed, friendlists\subscription and pretty much everything else you find annoying\distracting. I have the extension which does simillar thing also for Linkedin (you can easily find it if you search it).

Such extensions allow for way healthier time spending on these platforms

Edited April 25, 2020 by Hello from Russia

[Natasha]

@Hello from Russia Cool, thanks...will check it out 

[mandyjw]

I like to find my favorite pages and mark the "see posts first" option. 

[andyjohnsonman]

download facebook newsfeed eradicator as a google chrome extension

[Natasha]

1 hour ago, mandyjw said:

I like to find my favorite pages and mark the "see posts first" option. 

Good idea 

40 minutes ago, andyjohnsonman said:

download facebook newsfeed eradicator as a google chrome extension

Going to try that, thanks!