Simplifying your Facebook Life

Don’t you sometimes think that Facebook is way too much to handle? And that it is taking control of your free time (in some cases, even of work hours as well!)… And that “what the hell –virtual life is even more difficult than the real one!”

Even the word “Like” has begun to remind us of a tiny, blue color, omnipresent link.

More than one billion people around the world are hooked with Facebook. Out of these, at least a few millions are really exasperated about their complicated life on Facebook. Akin to every other good thing –Facebook also has a dark side. If not handled properly –this amazing social networking tool will not give you much benefit. On the contrary, it may give you headache!

“Ouch!”

So, how to handle a social network like Facebook in an intelligent manner so as to make your Facebook life simpler and happier? Given the current structure of Facebook –let me tell you that you will have to work a bit in order to achieve this goal. But Facebook is being revamped regularly and they have been able to eliminate a few of the nagging problems. In coming days, Mark Zuckerberg may bring more good news. But nevertheless, if you follow a few rules –all will always be fine in your Facebook world.

If you don’t have a good reason –do not add unknown people to your friend list. More friends you have –more would be the number of messages, groups, requests, tags, chats, stories, jokes and blah blah blah. If you already have a looong list of friends (of which only 10% you know!); then it is better to unfriend those FB friends. Begin with those who are the most irritating ones.

Too much involvement in online social activities can be the cause of great stress.

Keep untagging yourself from unnecessary tags. Unsolicited tagging is one of the worse menace on Facebook. You should even go for blocking the friends and applications who habitually tag you without any logical need. Tagged posts and photos spoil your wall and photo stream. You will actually find them so full of tagged material that your own posts will have to be looked for using a magnifying glass.

If you don’t want to untag yourself (it is still not a one-click thing!)… the alternative would be to use Stop Notifications feature. This is just one-click stuff. You’ll not receive notifications when someone will comment on a post that’s tagged to you.

Lock your wall. Don’t let people post anything on your wall. If somebody wants to say something to you; s/he can always send a private message. Posting on other people’s walls makes no sense. Your wall is yours. Messages on Facebook wall reflect a lot about (and your friend circle). So, it is better to keep your wall clean and have only your messages on it.

Keep on unjoining the unwanted groups wherein you have been added. Groups members upload and share all sorts of things which may not be on any interest to you. If you will continue to remain in these groups –your news feed, email box and Messages box will keep receiving unnecessary updates from groups which you don’t even know what they are about.

Either leave such unwanted groups or at least set them to stop sending you notifications.

Hide trouble-making people from your news feed. You may choose to hide those who post too many updates (in the form of YouTube links etc.) and those who keep making Facebook games requests (like FarmVille, CandyCrush and CityVille). In a recent upgrade, Facebook has given you several options to decide what comes in your news feed. If you don’t want, you no longer need to hide people from news feed –instead you can just choose to accept only “Important” updates from them. If you choose this option Facebook will automatically filter out games and application requests and links without a proper accompanying comment.

Do not “like” too many Facebook pages. “Like” a page only if the page is being actively updated and you are really interested in those updates.

SEE ALSO: 30 Tips for Safety of Women on Facebook

Do not post tens of updates in a day. Remember, people can find songs, music and funny videos online on their own. Just because you liked something does not mean everyone else also would like it. Sharing is good –but too much sharing OR sharing without value addition may cause irritation to others and to you too. You don’t want to end up getting blocked by others as I suggested above :-)

Do not subscribe to just any Facebook application. This can be dangerous (some cheap FB applications have been found stealing user information) and irritating for others.

Why do you want to give an application the right of deciding your top 10 friends? Do machines know better about your friends? If an application says you are 91% lucky today –are you going to put most of your savings in a risky business? Come on! You should remove such nonsense Facebook apps for you peace of mind, as well as that of the others.

Play Facebook Games but don’t toss your requests in public. Send these requests only to people who can and want to fulfill them. Other people are not interested in knowing whether your virtual corn crops are withering or you need a blanket (for a buffalo?!)

This was about the things that you should do on Facebook to keep your FB World uncluttered. However, there is more you should do if you want to revitalize your (Facebook) life.

• Spend less time online. Restrict the number of hours you stay online.
• Restrict the hours you remain online on chat. Beyond this you can remain online but go offline from chat
• Give more time to real life.

In case you’re really feeling addicted and/or spending too much time on Facebook, you should give a shot to deleting your Facebook account and get back into the real world. After a year or two, you can always go back online with more wisdom and freshness. Instead of deletion, you may also choose to deactivate your account and reactivate it later when you’re ready.

Try these steps and share your experiences with me! Let me, please, know if you have more suggestions for fellow TechWelkin readers.