Now that I have a fair number of friends on Facebook, I’m wondering what I need to do so that I don’t see the status updates in my newsfeed from the more, uhm, lame of my friends. I don’t want to unfriend them, I just don’t want their marketing drivel or personal junk in my news feed. Is there a way to do that in the new Facebook UI?
Hmmm…. sounds just a little bit likely that you have a bit of an issue with your friends or at least your choice of friends on Facebook?
Then again, I’ll be candid, I have friends with whom I’m linked on Facebook who do seem to spend too much time echoing their Twitter updates or posting Facebook updates that are links to their latest blog entries or other crass and annoying usages of the Facebook system. They’re not wrong to do so, I mean it’s an open system, but I think it’s not unreasonable for me to screen or filter their updates so I can focus on the interesting stuff from my closer friends.
That’s a whole philosophical debate, actually, and I invite you to add your two cents at the end of this blog post if you want to share your views about friending people whose updates you might not be interested in seeing…
Back to the task at hand, however!
Without picking on someone other than that she’s a convenient guinea pig for this entry, here’s a status update from my Facebook friend JoLynn Braley:
As you can see, a fairly straightforward update entry and all the visible options are along the bottom: Comment, Like and Share.
None of them are quite what we want, but here’s the secret: move your cursor to the top right of the region and a hidden option appears:
Like some sort of adventure game, a new button appears when the cursor is in the right spot, “Hide”.
Click on it and:
That’s how you hide updates from a specific user. Choose it and:
Bye, Bye JoLynn! 🙂
There are certain types of updates, like Digg updates, that can be blocked separate from an individual user too: when that’s the case, the “Hide” button brings up a menu with more options than just the user.
Finally, if you scroll to the bottom of your Facebook home page, you’ll now see:
You can click on the “hidden post” link to temporarily view the filtered or screened news status updates, or, if you click on “Edit Options” to see who you’ve blocked:
As you can see, it’s easy to make changes.
I hope that helps you fine-tune your Facebook friend update news feed.
I’d also like to let you know that I have quite a bit of Facebook help here on the site and that I also have an Ask Dave Taylor Facebook Fan Page that I invite you to join.
WOW just what I was looking for. Came here by searching for facebook help
When I try to hide someone’s posts, I can only achieve hiding one post at a time. There doesn’t seem to be an option that you talk about above. The option looks like this ‘Hide …’. When I click it, this post disappears, but all the others remain. There is also no edit option at the bottom of the page.
Thanks dave! Any idea how to do this with apple ipad? Ive been trying to figure out how to hide certain people from my newsfeed. But im using an ipad and the “hide” buttons dont seem to appear anywhere in the screen. Please help
hi,my home in iran i lives in iran.in iran facebook is filltering i cant come to facebook,before(1 years ago)i can by ‘https:\\face….’ connected to fb but now i cant.can u help me plllllllllllllllllzzz…..
thanks
This article came in very handy. Thanks!
This is a very helpful site, much more than facebook’s own help pages! Here’s my question:
I’ve hidden a friend (“Suzie Bigmouth”) and don’t get her status updates anymore. However, sometimes I get her info when an unhidden friend interacts with her (“Sally Sadpants commented on Suzie Bigmouth’s status”). I don’t want to know anything ever about Suzie Bigmouth. I know, I really should just block her, but we work in the same field and since she’s ALWAYS on facebook, it’s the best way to contact her directly. Is it possible to request zero information about Suzie Bigmouth, no matter where the Suzie Bigmouth info originates?
Thank you so much!
Starting about 2 weeks ago, when some of my friends comment or like something on THEIR friends posts, it is showing up on MY wall. This is not on my newsfeed, but on my wall. I don’t know the other person and I was not tagged. How can I correct this?
I do not want to be in the news feeds. I don’t want anyone to see my posts or my activity or see me at all in the news feeds. How can I have that information not be seen by anyone????? This was not answered in any of the previous posts.
Please help.
Is there any other way to reinstate previously hidden posts? I can’t see Cult of Mac messages any more but can’t see them on any hidden lists (although they do show up on the Friended app on my iPad!)
Yes, there are those people who post a few too many (irrelevant) status updates. However, my concern is with the status updates of pages that I am a “fan” of (all the bands, public speakers, authors, etc. that I indicated as my “favorites”). How can I filter those out, isn’t there a button with which you can undo those all at once (without un-“liking” them)? Thanks, Roze (Rozemarijn)
I have so many friends on facebook. sometimes, well most of the times, I dont want them when I login for them to know that I am now online. Soemtimes you just dont feel like chatting to anyone. My question is How do I hide my status when I am on facebook
ok I have tested if people can still comment or sent you a message if they are hidden from your news feed and they can, no problem.
I’m also in a group with some of the people I have hidden and I can see their post that they make in the group news feed and their comments.
So when you hide someone from your news feed that is ALL that happens, they can comment, see your posts, message you and don’t know you have hidden them, plus you will still see their posts in a groups feed.
And if you want to know what’s been going on with that hidden person, just go to their profile page 🙂