(Thoughts) Social Media: Facebook Settings

Last week, I attended a family holiday gathering where people were of ages 35 and above. We talked about several topics like being thankful for the holidays, seeing relatives and connecting with other people's lives. Among the various conversations, one topic startled me, Facebook.

Don't get me wrong, Facebook itself is not a startling subject. Everyone that is up to date with their technology would most likely have Facebook. The discussions that emerged were concerns about privacy, security and customizability. As I contributed my input, I learned that different generations approach this social medium differently.

The older generations at our table uses the medium to interact and connect with other friends and family as Facebook does. However, for one relative, it became their daily "newspaper" because their connections share news and trending topics. Another relative was frustrated with the frequency of one of their connections and their amount of posts. Some other relatives use it to play games. However, it was unanimous with all relatives that there was a solution that they were not aware of, the settings section of Facebook.

It was slightly startling to me because when I approach any newly registered accounts, from email to subscriptions, I always look into my settings first. I like having a sense of customizability and making something my own. I questioned the table how they first interacted with Facebook and the answer was mainly just using the service as it was provided and connecting with others as a basic service. There were little to no customizing of their settings and notifications. People were not aware of the settings, filtering and customizing their Facebook!

I contributed my analogy of Facebook like a new house where you would want to customize it as your own. Wouldn't you want to give your own personal touches? Why would you want a house that looks the same? I discovered through their frustrations that their problem also branches from the user interface and learning curve.

The relative with the frequent post concern could be solved easily by knowing where to go, which leads to a user interface/learning issue. I pointed out the slightly grey drop down menu on each post. Most of them were startled! I explained to them that each posts has their own settings such as on the home page.


Some posts allow you to filter your connections (and yes, their connections wouldn't know about it) like hide posts (see fewer posts like this), unfollow a user (stop seeing posts but stay friends), report posts, turn on notifications and much more.

Since 2016 is here, maybe spend some time and look through some of your settings on any of your registered accounts. It may help you reduce the amount of unnecessary email spam from Facebook notifications that you never realized was filling your email quota. It may help you see more frequent posts from a best friend.

Happy 2016. Let's make it a better one! Here's the link to the Sea otter post and yes it is adorable!

Tips: Did you know you could customize your own username (Facebook URL) on Facebook so that people can search you up easier? (This will not change your name on Facebook.)