It's that time again when Facebook makes some changes that send everyone into a tizzy about privacy settings and "Big Brother is Watching" conspiracy theories about Facebook selling our information and the government invading our bedrooms at night or some such thing.
These times inevitably spawn a series of status posts that are rooted in paranoid myths.
I believe they are started with good intention, but often, due to the "telephone game effect," they end up perpetuating false information.
The most recent example I have been seeing states a variation of the following: Hello friends, I like to keep my FB private except to those I am friends with.
So if you all would do the following, I'd appreciate it.
With the new FB timeline on its way this week for EVERYONE, please do both of us a favor.
Hover over my name above.
In a few seconds you'll see a box that says: "Subscribed".
Hover over that, then go to "comments and likes" and un-check it, by clicking on it.
That will stop my posts and yours to me from showing up on the sidebar for everyone to see, but most importantly it limits hackers from invading our profiles.
If you repost this I will do the same for you.
You'll know I've acknowledged you because if you tell me that you've done it I'll "like" it.
My first word of advice on this is, Be weary whenever you see, "repost this.
" Putting that aside, let's examine this post.
Part of it is true.
If you uncheck "comments and likes," you will stop seeing that person's comments and likes.
However, this does stop your posts from showing up.
This has no effect on your posts.
More on that later.
This also has no effect on "hackers invading our profiles.
" The only way to prevent these mysterious hackers is to adjust your own security settings.
More on that in a future article.
What now? Well, let's talk about these subscriber settings, your News Feed, the sidebar ticker, and your own posts.
"Who's That I See?" Who and what you see in your News Feed and in the sidebar ticker is comprised of who you are subscribed to, and the type of information from each person you are subscribed to.
There are two ways to adjust this information.
One, you can go to a friend's profile page and hover over "Subscribe(d)" at the top right corner.
Two, adjust the settings of friends from your News Feed.
There are two ways to do this: Hover over the carrot icon on top right of a post, or, hover over a friend's name.
The second method provides more options.
This is where you see the "comments and likes" mentioned in that viral status update.
You can completely unsubscribe from someone (which does NOT un-friend them), minimize what you see from them by selecting "Only Important," choose to see only specific types of updates, or opt to see "Most Updates.
" The other component I would like to address is the "List" option.
This will also define what you see on your home page.
As an example, I have several friends/pages collected into a list called "NYC.
" When I select that list from the left side, I will only see those friends/pages in the space normally displaying the News Feed.
I will not go into detail on how to create lists here, but I will likely write a series of these articles and address that in a future edition.
Moving on...
"But, They're Invading My Privacy!" The second concern of that aforementioned viral status update involves your own privacy settings.
Recall the sentence, That will stop my posts and yours to me from showing up on the sidebar for everyone to see.
Now, even though the information provided in that update is incorrect, it is quite easy to adjust the privacy settings of each of your posts.
Either as you post, or after you post, you can select your audience for that post by clicking on the icon that looks like a globe, friends, or a gear.
Your posts can be publicly visible, visible to friends only, combinations of various lists, or only yourself (which baffles me still, but I digress).
You can read more about this and additional privacy options under the privacy settings menu within Facebook.
What about your comments and likes, visible to others in their sidebar ticker? The harsh truth is there's nothing you can do about that.
If you "like" or comment on a publicly visible status, photo, link, etc.
, it will show up on your friends/subscribers sidebar ticker.
If you "like" or comment on an item that is not publicly visible, it will only show in the sidebar tickers of friends who can also see that same item (ie.
, mutual friends).
If this fact truly bothers you, I might suggest you move away from social media.
The ideology behind social media is connecting people through like interests.
If you don't want others to know that you "like" something, don't click "like.
" It's as simple as that.
When I "like" something, I'm essentially endorsing that idea or simply saying, "Hey, I like this!" If you really want to comment on an item without anyone else knowing about it, perhaps consider sending that person a private message.
"Who Are You?" Relatively new to Facebook is the option for people to subscribe to you without being "friends.
" This is essentially the same as following someone on Twitter.
Subscribers can only see your publicly visible posts.
Anyone who friend requests you automatically becomes a subscriber, or anyone who simply clicked on Subscribe on your profile.
You can see your subscribers by clicking on the drop-down arrow to the far right of your profile page, next to the "Likes" box.
Note that you can easily turn Subscribers off to prevent anyone from subscribing to your public posts.
Keep in mind that you cannot select a specific subscriber and remove him/her.
The only way to block a specific person from seeing your public posts is to completely block them from your account through your privacy settings.