15 Clever Hacks That Will Change the Way You Use Facebook

Never get another notification you don't care about.

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1. Hide certain posts or pages from popping up in your News Feed.

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After logging on to Facebook, you likely scroll through your News Feed to see what your friends are up to or to find interesting articles. However, you might have that one friend who seems to be constantly cluttering your feed with status updates and photos. Instead of unfriending someone completely, you can unfollow friends, pages, or groups by clicking on the arrow towards the top right of a given post. If you're on mobile, select "Unfollow X," and if you're on desktop computer, select "Hide all from X." Then you can say goodbye to News Feed clutter for good.

2. See the most recent posts first in your News Feed.

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Facebook is programed to automatically show you top posts for your friends and pages. However, sometimes that means seeing older posts that are no longer relevant. Reprogram your News Feed to be chronological, with the most recent posts at top, using the left-hand sidebar. If you're on mobile, click "more," then scroll down to "feeds" and select most recent.

3. Choose people and pages to show up first in your News Feed.

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Thanks to a new Facebook update that's currently available to iPhone users (and will be coming soon to Androids and desktop), you can now customize your News Feed even further. Prioritize updates from your best friends, closest family members, and favorite pages so that they show up first. To activate these settings, go to News Feed preferences and, under settings, choose "prioritize who to see first." Assigning blue stars to your "top" friends will ensure you never miss an update from them again. Learn more at Facebook Newsroom.

4. Stop getting notifications for things you don't care about.

Facebook is all about communicating with friends—it's likely that you comment on status updates as well as on articles shared by pages like Country Living Magazine on a daily basis. However, after you comment on a post, you might start receiving notifications when other users comment on the post after you, or respond to your comment. To stop notifications for a specific post on a desktop computer, first click on the notifications button. Hover over the specific notification you want to adjust and you'll see an X.

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Click on the X, and you'll be prompted to turn off notifications.

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In addition to turning off notifications for specific posts, you can use this method to receive fewer notifications from different events and friends.Learn more about how to turn off specific notifications at Facebook's Help Center.

5. Stop notifications from popping up on your phone.





Similarly, you likely don't want notifications popping up on your phone frequently. Push notifications (messages that pop up even when you aren't on Facebook) can be adjusted under your mobile settings. Select "notifications" and then "mobile push" and uncheck anything you don't want to see anymore.

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6. Say goodbye to pesky event and game invites.

If you find yourself constantly declining invites from the same few people over and over, this tip is for you. First, go to Facebook.com/settings and select "blocking." You'll see that you can block app invites (which includes games!), event invites, and even users or pages. Type in the offender's name and say goodbye to future pleas to start using a game you have zero interest in playing.

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Note: On mobile, you can only block users altogether, which means they won't be able to see that you exist on Facebook.

7. Find out where those messages you never received are hiding.

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Have you ever had someone ask about a Facebook message they sent you that you never received? Turns out, you actually have two inboxes—surprising, isn't it?! Facebook automatically filters your inbox so that you only receive messages from friends or people you may know (for example, friends of friends). Everything else will go into your "other" inbox, which can be accessed by clicking "see all" in your recent messages on a desktop computer. Then, click "other" next to "inbox" on the top left.

8. Disable "seen" in Facebook Messenger.

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Your Facebook automatically allows friends to see when you've opened messages they sent you on Messenger. This is annoying for both parties—your friends get frustrated when you haven't answered a message they know you've seen, and it makes you feel like you have to answer more quickly than you might like. While this is one of the harder settings to undo, you can use a third party app to turn it off on desktop only. Some popular choices are FBUnseen (for Google Chrome only) and Unseenly.

9. Easily manage your friends by sorting them into lists.

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Your nosy second cousin just added you on Facebook—now what? Look under Friends, to access Facebook lists. Then create a new list, and add as many friends as you'd like. Once a list is made, you'll be able to change your privacy settings, blocking specific lists from seeing certain information.

10. Choose who can see what you post.

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Similarly, you can block individual friends or lists of friends from seeing your most recent status updates, or photos you've posted. When you're posting on your timeline, your usual privacy settings will automatically be filled in.

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Click the above button (which says Friends, in this case), then more options, then custom. Under "don't share with," type in the friend's name (or the name of the list you previously made) that you want to hide the post from.

Note: If the status has already been posted, you can still update your settings by clicking the privacy button next to the date.

11. View how your profile looks to people you aren't friends with.

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Want to see how your profile looks to the public? Go to your profile page, then all the way to the right of your cover photo, click on "..." next to the message button. Then select "View as." You'll automatically see your Facebook profile as it shows up to people you aren't friends with. You can also select "View as Specific Person" on the same page to see how your timeline looks to different friends. This is helpful because it will show you which of your privacy settings you should update.

12. Make your profile picture "un-clickable."

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When you're adding a new friend, you may have noticed that you can click on some individual's profile pictures, while others are un-clickable. If you don't want any random person clicking through your profile pictures, change the settings. First, click on your profile picture on your timeline. If your photo is public, it will have a small globe next to it. Click the globe, and select "friends."

13. Edit your posts when you make a mistake.

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Anyone with an iPhone knows how easy it is for autocorrect to change what you're typing to something else completely. Luckily on a computer, you can edit your status updates after they're posted. Click the arrow in the top right corner of the post you want to change and select "edit."

Tip: Remember, your friends will be able to tell when you've edited a post. But we think that still sounds better than leaving an embarrassing typo on the page, of course.

14. Disable notification emails.

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If there's one thing we'll never understand about Facebook, it's why the site is constantly emailing us even though we already get notifications on our computers and phones. To turn of email notifications, go to Facebook settings, then select "notifications." Click "email" and then adjust the options to what you want to receive.

15. Change your password.

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Once you're logged into Facebook, you can change your password. If you're on a desktop computer, click the arrow to the top right and select "settings." Then click "general" from the left-hand side, and you'll be prompted to change your password. On mobile, the steps are pretty much the same, but you access "account settings" under the "more" button.

Rebecca Shinners

Rebecca was the social media editor at CountryLiving.com and WomansDay.com.