Approximately 1.4 billion people use Facebook every day.
Facebook has revolutionized the social context of who we see as friends. This is because a complete strange is one click away from becoming a friend, and having access to some of your most personal information.
Choosing friends on Facebook has become a challenging task due to the privacy risks that exist. But Facebook still enables you to control how much anyone can see about you.
Most people don’t know these tools, so here’s a guide on how to manage your Facebook friends.
1. Create a Friends’ List
Making a friend list on your Facebook profile will allow controlling the number of friends who have access to certain information you share on your profile.
For instance, if you attended a wedding recently, you can make a list of your relatives on Facebook. And then share the pictures or information with them.
You can create a list by:
- Go to the main page of your Facebook
- Scroll to the friend, and click
- Select the option to make a list
- Add the names of the friends you want on the list
You can add, and remove friends from the list you have created. The making a list helps you exclude certain people, even members of your family from accessing some of the information you want to post on your timeline.
The friends’ list also enables you to share sensitive information with only a limited number of people. For instance, if a loved one is going through cancer treatment or has recently died, sharing the information with close friends, and family can be facilitated by using the list.
2. How to Unfriend People
The number of friends you have on Facebook can quickly get out of hand. The best way to manage your Facebook friends is to figure out who the ones you are still connected with in some way are, and dropping the ones that are no longer in your life.
You can do this through various methods, such as the birthday updates. This method is particularly effective, Facebook sends you daily updates of the friends who have birthdays. You can either send them birthday wishes or you can simply click on the unfriend button.
Selecting the unfriend option is a safe way to manage your Facebook friends, and they will not be notified once you decide to unfriend them. You should be sure that you want to unfriend someone to prevent the awkwardness of having to resend a friend request to someone you already unfriended.
3. Blocking Friends
If you don’t want to unfriend someone due to various reasons. You can block them, and still get to decide when to check on them from time to time. Blocking a friend will prevent them from sending you any messages, and this is a good way to prevent your stalkers from disturbing you.
You can block someone by visiting their Facebook profile, then clicking on the gear-shaped button. The button will give an option to block the user, and you can proceed by clicking okay. Blocking a friend can be applied when they are harassing you or when they keep sending you multiple friend requests.
You can also report the user to Facebook by indicating how they have harassed. And their accounts will be suspended or disabled.
4. Finding Old Friends
If you are new to Facebook, and you want to reconnect with some of your high school friends. You can manually search for them by typing in their name on the search bar. But if you have forgotten their names, then you should fill out your personal bio with information that you share such as where you attended high school, college or even your area of residence.
Facebook will then generate friend options based on the information you have provided. You can also make the information more specific by providing dates such as when you completed high school. This will help you reconnect with some of your old friends, and even join various groups.
If you have changed your name, but still want some of your friends to find you. Then you can go to account settings and enter three names that are known by your friends.
5. Select What Shows up on Your News-feed
Your news-feed can be filled up with the information you do not really care about. You can manage this by going to the homepage and clicking on the News-feed tab. It is the one with the three dots next close to it.
Click on the three dots and then click on edit preferences. This will allow you to use the tools that can help you determine what shows up on your news-feed. Selecting the preferences can also help you manage your Facebook friends.
This is done by allowing you to unfollow pages, and people that you don’t want on your news-feed without having to unfriend them.
6. Create Rules for Who Makes the Cut
You can come up with certain rules that will help you decide who you accept as a friend. This will help you manage the number of friends you have, and will help you stay closer with the friends you already have.
For instance, you can choose to only accept friend requests from people you know from work, school, or they are related to your family. You can also check the user’s profile if you are not sure you know them.
This will help you decide who you keep as a friend, and will save you the time, and energy used to block or unfriend someone you don’t want as a friend.
At ExpertHelp, we can help you with ways to create rules for your friends.
Manage Your Facebook Friends
Privacy is the most important element in helping you manage your Facebook friends. You can improve the privacy of your account by using a stronger password. You should also talk about privacy with some of your friends, and ask them before tagging them in any photos or posts you share.
You can also use the privacy settings to protect your account, by choosing what people can see on your timeline. If you realize that your account has been hacked, report the incident to Facebook, and open another account.
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