How to Hide Things on Facebook

In my Facebook for Beginners classes, students are always asking me how to hide things such as ads, games, etc. While not everything one might wish to hide can be hidden, there are ways to hide certain things.

For example, you can tell Facebook that you don’t want to see a particular ad or ads for a particular company. But most likely there will always be ads, as having ads is one way that Facebook is able to remain a free service to all those who use it.

Here are some things you CAN hide on Facebook:

 

Hiding Parts of Your Personal Timeline from People Viewing Your Personal Page

• FRIENDS:
  • Go to the Friends tab and click on the pencil icon to the right of the screen
  • Then click on the words “Manage Privacy” to reveal a section called Friend List
  • Select “Only me” and then choose the option that’s best for your needs
• PHOTOS (in an album):
  • Click on the Album tab in your photos
  • At the bottom right hand corner of each album is a place where you can select the audience for that album.
    • FYI, your cover photo and your profile photo are always public
• ABOUT:
  • Here you can hide just about every section there is, or you can restrict the audience who can see selected items in your About section.
  • For example, if you don’t want people to know your age, go to About, and click on “Contact and Basic Info.”
  • Then click on Edit at the far right of the Birth Year section and select “Only me.”
  • This same process will hide anything else in About that you want hidden.

 

Hiding the Sidebar on the Far Right of Your Screen from Your Own View

• All of this is controlled by the cogwheel icon at the bottom right corner of your screen, so start by clicking on it
  • Games are one of the things most people I know aren’t interested in, so to keep those games from showing, just click on “Hide Games.”
  • Another thing that seems to annoy people is the ticker. That’s the part of the sidebar where you see what’s going on with your Facebook friends (such as when they like a comment). To remove the ticker, just click on “Hide Ticker.”
  • Some people like to keep the chat feature but not make themselves available to chat with everyone. By clicking on the hyperlink “Advanced Settings,” you are taken to a screen called Advanced Chat Settings. From there you can decide who you want to be able to chat with (or who you DON’T want to be able to chat with) on a person-by-person basis, or you can just turn off the entire chat feature.
    • If you don’t want to chat with anyone, just click on “Turn Off Chat.”
• Finally, if you don’t want the sidebar to appear at all, click on “Hide Sidebar.”

 

Other Sections You Can Avoid Seeing

• ADS
  • At least those that appear in the column to the right of the newsfeed can be hidden by clicking on the top right corner of the photo associated with the ad. Poof! It’s gone. However, another ad will appear.
• SPONSORED STUFF
  • Click on the downward pointing arrow and select “Hide ad.”
• POSTS FROM BUSINESS PAGES:
  • If a friend received a post from a business page, and you don’t want to se that post, just click on the downward pointing arrow and select “Hide post.”
  • Or sometimes there is an option to “hide all” from a particular business page, which is useful if you know you are not interested in anything from that business.

 

How About You?

Have you hidden any Facebook sections? Which ones do you find the most annoying? What parts of Facebook do you definitely want to have seen by Facebook Friends even though you could hide that section?

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 50 and up, to become more comfortable using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.

She works with business owners, business development professionals, leaders of nonprofit organizations, job seekers, retired people, consultants, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.