How to edit Friends list on Facebook 2020
Facebook is exceptional at keeping us connected to people wed otherwise lose touch with. Its equally adept at helping us stay involved in the lives of our family, friends and professional contacts. Theres an art to picking and choosing who sees what, though just because we can share everything with everybody doesnt mean we should. Show
Theres a side of you that you present to the people you work with. Protecting both your privacy and your reputation means filtering what you let your managers, co-workers, partners and clients see. The Facebook restricted list lets you control who sees what, and additional privacy settings also let you manage what you see of everyone elses. Before we get into it, remember this: nothing that you post online is ever truly private, even if youre diligent about your privacy settings. Whether its a fluke that exposes your protected posts, a hacker who gets into your account or a screenshot someone passes along, your content can get out to the public. If what you post is career- or relationship-ending, it may not be worth it. What is the Facebook Restricted List?When you add someone to the Facebook restricted list, you remain friends with them while limiting the posts theyre able to see. They will only see your posts if youve set the audience to Public (indicated by the globe icon), if theyre tagged in it or if a mutual friend tags both of you in the post. They will not know that theyre on your restricted list. You will still be able to chat with them via Messenger and youll see their posts in your News Feed as normal. Lets say you dont want your supervisor to see everything you post on Facebook, so you add him to your restricted list. The next time you post, you select the Friends audience. Your supervisor will not be able to see the post it wont show up in his News Feed and he wont be able to see it if he goes directly to your profile. However, if you choose a Public audience or you tag your supervisor in the post, he will be able to see it even though hes on your restricted list. There are all sorts of connections you may want to add to the Facebook restricted list:
Adding People to the Facebook Restricted ListHeres how to add people to the Facebook restricted list on an iPhone:
The process is similar on a browser:
To remove a friend from the restricted list, go through the same steps and just de-select Restricted. How to Tell if Youre on Someones Facebook Restricted ListWondering if you made it onto someones restricted list? There are a few ways to figure it out (if you care enough to) aside from asking them point-blank.
More Ways to Manage Your Facebook ConnectionsChange Who Sees All Past PostsIf youve given your Facebook a privacy overhaul and you want to make sure your past posts arent seen by everyone and anyone, you can limit their visibility. This will automatically set all of your past posts to Friends, indicated by the icon with two people. People tagged in the posts will still be able to see them. Heres how to do it on an iPhone:
Heres how to do it on a browser:
Edit the Privacy of a Specific Past PostIf you only want to change the privacy of a single past post, heres how to do it on an iPhone:
The process is similar on a browser. You just go to the post, hover over the privacy setting and then select the setting you want. You can also choose the Friends except option to block certain people or lists from seeing what you post (you can do this when creating a post, too). Change Who Sees Future PostsThe easiest way to change who will see your future Facebook posts by default is through the browser. On your iPhone, you have to actually post something in order for the change to take effect. This just sets the default; you can still change the visibility for a specific post by clicking the dropdown when creating the post.
Take Advantage of the Standard Facebook ListsIn addition to the Facebook restricted list, Facebook also has a Close Friends list and an Acquaintances list. Adding people to these lists can help you control what you see in your News Feed. You can also set your posts to be hidden from people on these lists. The Close Friends list is for people whose posts you want to see more of, while the Acquaintances list is for people whose posts you want to see less of. By going to an acquaintances profile, you can see everything theyve posted, including the posts that didnt show up in your feed. Create a Custom ListFacebook auto-creates a few lists for you, like people you went to school with. If the ready-made Facebook lists arent quite cutting it, though, you can create your own custom friends list. With a custom list, you can better micro-manage who sees what.
Creating multiple friend lists helps when selecting who can and cannot see what you post, but it also gives you the option to filter what you see. By going to Explore and then Friend Lists, you can select the list you want and then view all of their recent posts in a News Feed. Unfollow Someone to Stop Seeing Their PostsIf you want to stay connected on Facebook without unfriending someone, you can unfollow people on Facebook so their posts stop popping up in your feed. On an iPhone, go to the persons profile and click the Friends icon under their profile photo. Click Unfollow in the pop-up. On a browser, go to their profile and hover over Following. Click Unfollow [Name] on the bottom. Manage What You See in Your News FeedYou can customize what you see in your News Feed in a few ways. On your browser, click the three dots to the right of News Feed on the left. On an iPhone, click the three lines on the bottom right, click Settings and Privacy, click Settings and then scroll down to News Feed Settings and click News Feed Preferences. Youll get several options to choose from. These three are the most useful:
Even More Privacy SettingsThere are a number of other privacy settings that can help you manage your Facebook account. You can find these under privacy settings and Timeline and Tagging settings. Control things like:
When you feel strongly about not being visible or available to someone, consider blocking them you wont appear in their search results, they wont be able to see anything on your profile and they wont be able to contact you in Messenger. How to Prune Your Facebook ConnectionsIf you have hundreds or thousands of friends, itll take hours to comb through them to unfriend, unfollow or add them to the correct list, and you may still miss some. Once youve gone through everyone you work with to ensure theyre not seeing certain content, take a more organic approach with the rest of your list. Make a point to check Facebook every day and look at birthday announcements, then make privacy changes to just those people. After a year, youll have updated everyone on your list. Think Before You UnfriendIts not possible to unfriend multiple contacts at once, so you have to consider each and every person you unfriend and even though disconnecting will cut down your contacts list, it could leave people with hurt feelings. People dont get notified when you unfriend them, but they will notice that theyre no longer connected with you if they go to your profile. A random acquaintance who youve never met or talked to in real life is probably safe to unfriend without any repercussions, but people youve known for a long time, even if communication has been non-existent in recent years, may get insulted. To keep the peace and avoid burning a bridge, unfollowing a person and adding them to your Acquaintances or Restricted list may be a kinder, less dramatic choice. Wrapping UpThe larger your Facebook network, the more your privacy is up for grabs, and the safest option is to never post something that you wouldnt be okay with everyone seeing. Since you want to use Facebook to express yourself, though, put thought into which individuals and lists can see certain types of content every time you post. Youll communicate with your most important connections without having your privacy invaded. Have you found any clever ways to make Facebook work for you and expertly manage your connections? Tell me about it in the comments! Featured image via Vadym Nechyporenko / shutterstock.com |