Facebook is great for reconnecting and staying connected to family and friends. But it can also be a nasty place. If your Facebook experience is doing more harm than good, maybe some of my tips can help. If these tips don’t work for you, before you leave Facebook completely, deactivate your account and take a break. Here are my 10 tips to enjoying Facebook (in no particular order):
- If you want to just enjoy Facebook and not get your blood pressure up, “Unfollow” (don’t unfriend) people who post things that annoy or upset you.
- Don’t post anything political or religious.
- Don’t comment on someone else’s post, unless it’s a positive comment and NOT political or religious. If you must respond, just “like” with an emoji, no text.
- Be positive, try to entertain, teach or inspire.
- Don’t reply to posts from people or groups you don’t know. By answering stupid questions like “what do you call the end of a loaf of bread” you will get more stupid stuff in your news feed.
- Post awesome photos past and present. People like photos.
- Use private messages for private things.
- Don’t accept friend requests from people you don’t know, unless you have friends or interests in common.
- Treat people as you would face to face. The golden rule applies here. But some people are just plain nasty; block them.
- The real jewel of Facebook is private groups. If you don’t belong to any groups, you are missing out. Find something that you are interested in and join a private group. You don’t get the same nasty comments in private groups. People tend to be kinder and often very supportive.
I know a lot of people who complain about Facebook and it’s usually because they don’t understand Facebook’s algorithm, therefore they get stuff in their newsfeed that only feeds into their dislike for the site. By following these tips, you can customize Facebook so that it’s enjoyable. But it does take some time to weed out the crap, especially if you have lots of ‘friends.’
