Facebook Feed and Unwanted Content
Video Transcript
Marianne: …on social media, or should I say not talking [inaudible 00:00:02] social media.
[Crosstalk]
Cody: Yes, okay, so how many holidays have been ruined the last couple of years with politics from Facebook and people get angry.
Ryan: Yeah, we joined Facebook for a couple of reasons. We wanted to keep in touch with our high school friends…see how fat the football star got…
Cody: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ryan: …right? And make fun of other people.
Cody: Uh-huh.
Ryan: I mean, that’s the reason we’re on there. We don’t wanna talk politics, so…
Cody: Cat videos.
Ryan: …all you people posting conservative, or liberal, or whatever. I don’t care. So, here’s how we’re gonna get rid of it. So, there’s a couple of ways. We’re gonna start with the least offensive and then get really offensive. How does that sound?
Cody: Let’s do that.
Ryan: All right. So, this is my mother-in-law. Hi, mother-in-law.
Cody: Hi.
Ryan: So, let’s say for some reason we don’t wanna see posts, either from her or from where she goes, you can literally hide this posting itself, just by clicking this little caret up here. You can unfollow her, which is kind of a nice way to stop seeing her in your Facebook feed, and you don’t unfriend her. And all of a sudden she goes, “Why did you unfriend me on Facebook?” And then she just yells at you. Or you can just say, “Hey, I don’t like posts from this one particular place she keeps going,” and you could just hide that.
Cody: Oh, okay.
Ryan: Is that real easy?
Cody: Okay, yeah, I like that. Okay.
Ryan: Or you can go the nuclear option…
Cody: Okay.
Ryan: …right? This is what Jeff Sessions is gonna do. All you’re gonna do is go in here and you can literally click on, in your little feed here that you don’t want to see this person anymore. And you can block them entirely. They can’t message you. They can’t text you. They can’t do nothing. They’re gone. It’s like they’re dead.
Cody: They’re gone like they’re off the planet, gone.
Ryan: Yes, yes. So, if Trump keeps texting you in the middle of the night, and says “Cody, what do I do? How do I do this job?” There you go, you can just block him.
Cody: He’s always calling me, yeah.
Ryan: Now, in your newsfeed, if you click on Newsfeed and Preferences, these are all these kinda cool things you can do with your preferences. You can say, “Okay, I don’t want to see, like, my mother-in-law first,” or “I do want to see her first.” And you can star her and she’ll always come up to the top of your newsfeed.
Cody: All right, I like that.
Ryan: You can also unfollow particular people. But here’s the thing. If you started unfollowing a bunch of people last year and you’re like, “Whatever happened to that high school friend?” You can bring them back, just by clicking on your Newsfeed Preferences.
Now, here’s really cool. If you use Facebook on your computer, we’ve got a whole world of hurt we can put on people. Check this out. So this is called Social Fixer. This is just a little download you put on your browser, Firefox or Chrome, it doesn’t really matter, any browser they support. And here’s really cool…is you can filter out specific keywords. So, if you don’t wanna do it person by person, you wanna do it by subject by subject. Let’s say you don’t want to see the big reveal on what’s happening on Flash…
Cody: Yeah, yeah.
Ryan: …this week, you can just type in “flash” and it will filter everything with the word “flash” in it.
Cody: And you could change that?
Ryan: You can change it to whatever you want. Now they have a bunch of preset filters, so if you wanna do like politics, or Trump or Hillary, or whatever you wanna put in there. You can put all those in there. Or you can make then yourself…
Cody: Oh, nice.
Ryan: …which is pretty cool.
Cody: So, Cody and suck, I could put that in there and I’ll never see that again.
Ryan: No, you’ll never see it again. People will have to spell it wrong, and then he’ll still see it. So, this is called Facebook Purity. I know the website’s kinda terrible. But here’s the cool thing about this…is you know how auto-play videos come on?
Cody: Uh-huh.
Ryan: And you don’t want to watch those all the time? You can do all kinds of cool things with Facebook Purity. You can turn off the videos. You can make sure that you filter out certain people, certain subjects, things like that, very similar to Social Fixer. And last but not least, Town Hall. We talked about this a little bit last week. Cool part about Town Hall is, let’s say you wanna get on there and start messing with this guy, all you gotta do is click here, Contact. And all of his contact information shows up right there in Facebook. You can follow him directly from Facebook. You can message him, get all kinds of…your representatives say, “Hey, fix stuff, fix stuff, you guys. Come on.”
Cody: Yeah. So you can do…it’s that instant, you can get you information…
[Crosstalk]
Ryan: It’s that instant. Hey, Kamala Harris, I wanna talk to you. Where’s your phone number? Right there. And say, “Hey, get on it man. I’m tired of this stuff.”
Cody: Could I see your… Hold on, hold on. Yeah, it’s a little elevated…
[Crosstalk]
Ryan: I’m way too excited.
Cody: You’re okay, you’re okay. All right, there we go. Thanksgiving, all the holidays coming up, you know, Easter, been saved. Thank you very much.
Ryan: Saved.
Cody: I appreciate that. All right, back to you.
Marianne: All right, thanks Cody.
If Facebook’s constant political posts have you fatigued and frustrated, we are here with some tips for filtering the politics out of your Facebook news feed. Today, Facebook’s news feed just makes us angry. How can you filter out the posts you don’t want to see?
Facebook is where people are joined for social sharing, such as kids and families. It can be used to see how fat the high school football star got, or to reconnect with lost relationships. It’s also used to view big announcements, such as career moves, weddings, and births.
How does this affect me?
A study was done before the election that shows more than a third of people are worn-out by politics on social media. Studies have shown that content on the news feed affects your mood, such as friends we casually follow for life updates that are pontificating about politics. We don’t follow our old high school friends for their political views.
We can avoid sensitive political conversations in real life by avoiding a family dinner party. However, we’re forced to confront them on Facebook. Sometimes we will avoid topics to avoid a fight. Sometimes we feel compelled to post counterpoints or get into “discussions,’ which can devolve into a large argument.
If you block these people on Facebook, that’s a major social slight
What are your options?
You can use Facebook filters to filter content out. The little carrot icon top right-hand corner of every post will allow you to un-follow certain posts. It will also give you the option to filter pages, or to block ads! You can also put your friends in priority. This allows you to reconnect with friends you stopped following.
Browser Filter Extensions
Another option is to use filtering browser extensions, such as some Chrome browser extensions to turn off all politics, like an on-off switch. You can use extensions such as Social Fixer, or better screenshots. These extensions work on all modern browsers, and they have ready-made filters you can use, or make your own based on keywords.
Once you set this up, the post will be replaced by “post hidden by filter [name of filter].” You can still access post if you want. These extensions can filter out politics, sponsored posts, spoilers, sports, etc.
Facebook Purity
You can also use Facebook Purity. This lets you block images based on content. It uses Facebook’s automated image recognition and classification system to filter content. It can also “Text Filter” to block specific text. The only drawback is that the browser extensions will not strip this content from your smartphone.
Townhall Feature
A Third option is to take action to support change! You can get something politically beneficial from Facebook. Check out new Facebook Townhall feature. This allows you to connect with your representatives, and let your (polite) voice be heard by the people who need to hear it.
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About The Author: Andrea Eldridge is CEO and co-founder of Nerds On Call, a computer repair company that specializes in on-site and online service for homes and businesses. Andrea is the writer of a weekly column, Nerd Chick Adventures in The Record Searchlight. She prepares TV segments for and appears regularly on CBS, CW and FOX on shows such as Good Day Sacramento, More Good Day Portland, and CBS 13 News, offering viewers technology and lifestyle tips. See Andrea in action at callnerds.com/andrea/.
