Someone asked me recently how to hide people on Facebook. This person had unfriended several people who posted things they found objectionable. They didn’t mind if the unfriend knew, they figured the feedback may be good for them. For some other Facebook friends, thought, they didn’t want to go that far and instead just wanted to see less of their posts. Facebook changes often and things move around a lot, so it is possible that you need an update on this too.

1. If you want to hide a Facebook friend’s comments, or most of their comments and posts, click on their name anywhere you see it in blue on Facebook. If you roll over the name, an image of the person’s Timeline will pop up and the name will appear underlined. (See image below) Click the name to go to their Timeline (personal page).



2. Once you are on your friend’s Timeline, roll over where it says “Friends” on the lower right of the large photo. A drop down menu should appear, like in the image below. If you don’t want to see any of your friend’s posts you can click to uncheck the “Show in News Feed” choice. Then nothing they post will show in your feed.



3. If you want to see important things your friend posts (weddings, funerals, babies, etc.) click “Settings” just below “Show in News Feed” in the drop-down menu and then select “Only Important”.
4. You can get more specific about which posts you block if you want. Let’s say you have a friend (like me) who posts photos of orphan animals all the time, and you’d rather not see those. You could go to their (my) Timeline and uncheck “Photos” under the Settings link. (See image above if you’ve forgotten where that is). Unfortunately you will also miss the photos I post of the local hailstorms/floods/tornado damage, my family, my legitimate pets, seasonal flowers, and all the other wonderful things I upload, but life is all about choices.

Many of my friends play games. I don’t play games, so I hide those. Even if you hide all of your friend’s posts you can still see “Likes” and “Comments” your other friends make to your hidden friend. That way you can comment to your hidden friend too if you want. You can also still go to their Timeline if you just get curious about them. Put their name into the Search box at the top to find a link to it.

Your friend won’t know that you’ve hidden them, so there is no social issue. I recently saw a joke that seems to fit here:

I used to wish I knew what other people were thinking, then I got Facebook. Now I wish I didn’t know!

Are you missing updates from Facebook Pages you’ve liked?

On another note, maybe you are not seeing the posts of the businesses and organizations you have liked on Facebook, and you miss them. (The Laurel Design Page, maybe?) To be sure you see those posts, go to that page and, under the “Liked” link check “Get Notifications”. That makes it a lot more likely you will see the updates on that page in your feed.

Hiding Facebook Ads

What about all those ads you are now seeing on your Facebook feed? Facebook is trying to make a profit for their stockholders, so you will probably see more of these. You can hide the specific ad by hovering over the top right of the ad space and then clicking on the downward facing arrow that appears. “Hide” will be one of the choices presented on the drop-down menu. Facebook takes that as your preference, and it will put another type of ad in your feed next time. I have heard of an ad-blocker, but I haven’t resorted to that solution yet.

Hope this all helps you to see what you want on Facebook. Your comments and feedback are welcome!