Facebook - the new layout + privacy tips
Seems like almost everyone I’ve ever known is on Facebook. Love it or hate it, here are two things you should know about it if you’re on it.
New layout: A lot of people are complaining about the new layout. It takes some getting used to, but once you figure it out, it has some nice features. I like the ability to create lists of friends and then having the ability see updates only from the people on those lists.
Most everyone on Facebook has accumulated a huge list of friends. Many of them are not really friends, exactly, but more like aquaintances, or even distant, old aquaintances. Some of these people may like to post constant status updates, which will clog your updates list with useless junk you could care less about.
With the new system, you can create different friends lists, and check in on different groups of friends easily. I have a couple ones, “day to day” friends, “school” friends, “old” friends, etc. Depending on who I want to hear from, I choose the list I want and am presented with only the updates from the people on it.
This prevents wading through a bunch of posts from people you haven’t actually spoken to in 10 years. A nice feature in my opinion.
Privacy: This is important. When you initially create your profile, everything on it is essentially made public. You need to set your privacy options to change this.
Look at the top right of the window, click Settings, then Privacy Settings. First click Profile: I have (and recommend) all settings to Friends Only. Then hit the back button and go to Search. Here you can choose who to allow to find you on there, and what they see when they do find you. I have mine set to Everyone with all options checked (which is the default) but if you prefer not to be listed publicly you can change it here.
