# Facebook 101



## fredtgreco

Ok,

So as some of you know, I joined Facebook this morning. It is really surreal. I did this mostly to get a feel for what it was like as more of the young people from our Church are involved in Facebook. I also found out that there are a great many PCA ministers on FB (maybe for the same reason?). While trying to work, my email is going berserk. I have like 40 "friends" now, and even got a request from John Frame! 

I am also now understanding how people have information overload and the inability to think through things methodically. I am getting "Wall postings" "Notes" email like messages, friend requests, group suggestions and all kinds of other things that are making me dizzy. I have no idea what is public, what is semi-private and what is private. Does anyone have a Facebook 101 manual to instruct me? Twitter was WAY less complicated and easier to understand.


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## Mushroom

You're just a popular guy, Fred. Mine's dead as a ghost town.


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## LawrenceU

I'm a FB prude I guess. I tend to ignore most of what I get. I have turned down some 'friend requests' if I didn't really know them. I've probably offended some folks in the process without knowing it. I do get the 'overload' factor though.


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## fredtgreco

Brad said:


> You're just a popular guy, Fred. Mine's dead as a ghost town.



Well if it will make you feel better, send me a request, and I'll "friend you."

I finally got around to "marrying" my wife this afternoon.


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## a mere housewife

You can go into your settings and edit a lot of what goes into the feed, and also that gives an idea of what is public/private (though I imagine, being much more computer savvy than I am, you've already done this: it took me a couple months I think to figure that out). I think you can also join the group for ignoring group/application invitations and then ignore all group/application invitations . My family is on and it was a nice way to keep up, see pictures, etc, but I closed the account because I realized that everything I did on there was still far more public than I wished it to be. However, if you should get a request from an Uber Presbyterian German Shepherd . . . .


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## PresbyDane

Congratulations it was about time was it not


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## KMK

I couldn't handle it. I shut my Facebook down after a couple of weeks because I was so overwhelmed. I had many friend requests from people whom I hadn't spoken to in decades. It was too emotionally draining for me.


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## fredtgreco

So how do I get my educational information to show? When I look at myself in the list of friends on someone else's page, it just shows my name. How do I get to add "Michigan Law '96" or "Katy, TX" ?


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## panta dokimazete

fredtgreco said:


> So how do I get my educational information to show? When I look at myself in the list of friends on someone else's page, it just shows my name. How do I get to add "Michigan Law '96" or "Katy, TX" ?



Edit your Info settings under your Profile - there is a little pencil in the upper right corner of the tabbed page...says "Edit Information"

-----Added 2/23/2009 at 05:38:37 EST-----

Here is my Profile


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## LadyFlynt

The first few days are like that, Fred. It will trickle down to a dull roar eventually with just the younger crowd trying to send you "candy, flowers, plants, fish, or bears" via various apps. However, you can ignore them (I've accidentally sent something to someone without meaning to while trying to keep up with old friends that are including me in on these daily treats).

However, I'm going to "friend you" also, if you don't mind


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## TimV

There's one thing that I've found handy. You don't want to insult someone from High School, right? So I've added those that requested friend status, but one is gay, another into something really strange, etc...

So when you get something about that sort of person, if you wave around your cursor towards one of those people's updates, you can click "less of this person", and you don't hear much from them anymore.


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## rescuedbyLove

Yay, congrats!
I know how you feel. I was pretty overwhelmed at first, too. I fact, I _hated_ facebook at first. I got an account and then didn't use it until a year later. Then when I came back, it was _a lot more_ complicated! I was telling people at church that I needed to have someone come over to my house and tutor me in Facebook! But no one would lol; they just kept telling me I would get the hang of it, which I did. And I'm still learning...and being annoyed by a few things. But it's great for keeping in touch with people. My pastor won't join (yet!). But one of our elders did!


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## matt01

fredtgreco said:


> So as some of you know, I joined Facebook this morning.



I am so sorry for you. I only had an account for a month or so, and still feel the loss of that time.  But to answer your question, you just need to bump around in the program.


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## Ex Nihilo

panta dokimazete said:


> fredtgreco said:
> 
> 
> 
> So how do I get my educational information to show? When I look at myself in the list of friends on someone else's page, it just shows my name. How do I get to add "Michigan Law '96" or "Katy, TX" ?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Edit your Info settings under your Profile - there is a little pencil in the upper right corner of the tabbed page...says "Edit Information"
> 
> -----Added 2/23/2009 at 05:38:37 EST-----
> 
> Here is my Profile
Click to expand...


To make the information show up in the little boxes on other people's profiles, you'll need to join those networks. There is probably a Katy network (or at least a Houston network) that anyone can join. Joining the U of Michigan network might require a school email address.


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## he beholds

You can also set it in settings, I think, to not email you. I do that b/c I hate my inbox getting flooded. Also, if you use any applications (for instance, scrabble) you'll need to go into applications and click edit. scrabble. do not email notifications. 
Or something along those lines
You'll figure it out and it DOES die down.


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## fredtgreco

panta dokimazete said:


> fredtgreco said:
> 
> 
> 
> So how do I get my educational information to show? When I look at myself in the list of friends on someone else's page, it just shows my name. How do I get to add "Michigan Law '96" or "Katy, TX" ?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Edit your Info settings under your Profile - there is a little pencil in the upper right corner of the tabbed page...says "Edit Information"
> 
> -----Added 2/23/2009 at 05:38:37 EST-----
> 
> Here is my Profile
Click to expand...


No. I mean how some have school and town information in the list on a person's friend's page (see red arrows), and some do not (see green arrows).

I've attached a screenshot.


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## etexas

My wife wants me to get one.......I can't....hearing from people I have not heard from in 20 years! Thats a NIGHTMARE, like being stuck in your High-School reunion!!!!! Class of 88 ROCKS!


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## Ex Nihilo

fredtgreco said:


> panta dokimazete said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> fredtgreco said:
> 
> 
> 
> So how do I get my educational information to show? When I look at myself in the list of friends on someone else's page, it just shows my name. How do I get to add "Michigan Law '96" or "Katy, TX" ?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Edit your Info settings under your Profile - there is a little pencil in the upper right corner of the tabbed page...says "Edit Information"
> 
> -----Added 2/23/2009 at 05:38:37 EST-----
> 
> Here is my Profile
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> No. I mean how some have school and town information in the list on a person's friend's page (see red arrows), and some do not (see green arrows).
> 
> I've attached a screenshot.
Click to expand...


Those pages show the networks you belong to.


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## fredtgreco

OK, so how do I find and join a "network?"


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## Ex Nihilo

fredtgreco said:


> OK, so how do I find and join a "network?"



Click on Settings on the right side of the main page.

When you get to the Settings menu, click on the Networks tab (second from left).


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## fredtgreco

Ex Nihilo said:


> fredtgreco said:
> 
> 
> 
> OK, so how do I find and join a "network?"
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Click on Settings on the right side of the main page.
> 
> When you get to the Settings menu, click on the Networks tab (second from left).
Click to expand...


A-ha! So it looks like this is for _current_ only, not Alumni.


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## Classical Presbyterian

I think I just added to your requests....


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## Ex Nihilo

fredtgreco said:


> Ex Nihilo said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> fredtgreco said:
> 
> 
> 
> OK, so how do I find and join a "network?"
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Click on Settings on the right side of the main page.
> 
> When you get to the Settings menu, click on the Networks tab (second from left).
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> 
> A-ha! So it looks like this is for _current_ only, not Alumni.
Click to expand...


Yes, unless you have an email address from the school.


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## Herald

FB is cool and a great witness tool. Many of my high school classmates have asked me to their friend; a few co-workers too. Once they peruse my page they find out what I believe theologically. I've had two individuals "unfriend" me because of that. But I've also had some positive conversations.


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## Marrow Man

fredtgreco said:


> Ok,
> 
> So as some of you know, I joined Facebook this morning.



Fred, this is undoubtedly some more of that cool providence. I tried to see today if you were on Facebook; your name didn't come up then, but now here you are. Excellent!

Try installing the "My Church" application and place your own church under it. Get your congregants to add the application and invite their friends to do so. It is a great way to get your church's name "out there."


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## Calvinist Cowboy

Sent you a friend request. Don't worry about adapting. It's just like driving. It takes a while to get used to, but then it becomes really cool!


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## Pilgrim

fredtgreco said:


> Ok,
> 
> So as some of you know, I joined Facebook this morning. It is really surreal. I did this mostly to get a feel for what it was like as more of the young people from our Church are involved in Facebook. I also found out that there are a great many PCA ministers on FB (maybe for the same reason?). While trying to work, my email is going berserk. I have like 40 "friends" now, and even got a request from John Frame!
> 
> I am also now understanding how people have information overload and the inability to think through things methodically. I am getting "Wall postings" "Notes" email like messages, friend requests, group suggestions and all kinds of other things that are making me dizzy. I have no idea what is public, what is semi-private and what is private. Does anyone have a Facebook 101 manual to instruct me? Twitter was WAY less complicated and easier to understand.



I would say that FB is more private overall than the PB is (i.e. some forums on the PB are publicly viewable) provided you have your profile set to private, although any member will be able to see who your friends are. Basically, unless you're sending a private message, assume anything else you do there can be seen by any of your friends. 

-----Added 2/23/2009 at 08:52:34 EST-----



fredtgreco said:


> So how do I get my educational information to show? When I look at myself in the list of friends on someone else's page, it just shows my name. How do I get to add "Michigan Law '96" or "Katy, TX" ?



One really frustrating aspect of FB is that you can't join an alumni network unless you have a valid current email address from that school. Since I graduated college in the mid 90's when the internet was still basically getting off the ground and students weren't assigned email addresses, obviously that doesn't apply in my case. Apparently this rule is a holdover from the days in which FB was aimed at students and hopefully it will be remedied soon. I know they've gotten a ton of complaints over it but may retain the policy as a way to keep every Tom, Dick and Harry from joining the Harvard network without a means of verifiying it. You can always create an alumni group or join one. 

I'm assuming you are referring to networks. You can put your hometown (which I see you've done) and probably would want to join the Houston network, although I can't say for sure that I've derived any benefit from being in the New Orleans network. There is one instance in which it may have been helpful, but I don't know for sure. 

Some of the more prominent leaders use the site more than others. I've created two groups dedicated to preachers that have in recent years gone to be with the Lord (W.A. Criswell and S. Lewis Johnson,) and for example Ligon Duncan has joined both groups! While I've "met" him a couple of times when I visited FPC Jackson in the past, I'm quite sure he doesn't remember meeting me, especially not by name. 

Via Facebook I also connected with the man who has been filling our pulpit in recent weeks and put him in touch with the leadership of our church, which led to him being invited to preach.


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## Brother John

Fred, 

Welcome to the matrix.... 

Just make sure you set up your privacy settings and you will be fine. If you don't want to get an email every time something happens then just turn off the different emails. My wife and I have enjoyed being able to interact with family and friends. But you have to watch it because FB can be addicting


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## fredtgreco

Blev3rd said:


> Fred,
> 
> Welcome to the matrix....
> 
> Just make sure you set up your privacy settings and you will be fine. If you don't want to get an email every time something happens then just turn off the different emails. My wife and I have enjoyed being able to interact with family and friends. But you have to watch it because FB can be addicting



John,

What privacy settings do you recommend or use? I have email notifications turned off for almost everything - since I have an iPhone, I can always check FB without a notification, and before I did that my inbox exploded.


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## OPC'n

Rev. Greco,
I don't know if anyone has informed you that if you collect enough "friends" at FB you can trade 10 of them in for a Whopper! It's something to consider when accepting friends...that's my goal!


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## LadyFlynt

etexas said:


> My wife wants me to get one.......I can't....hearing from people I have not heard from in 20 years! Thats a NIGHTMARE, like being stuck in your High-School reunion!!!!! Class of 88 ROCKS!


Speaking of....our class reunion is partially being arrange through Facebook! Yup, that's how we are all finding eachother and chatting it up. I will not be attending....don't ever intend to step foot in that state again. But it is nice to see how we've all grown and moved on with life. We had a very small highschool.


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## Scottish Lass

My two-bit university offers email addresses to the folks who graduated before the internet was big--they just verify you attended and will give you a permanent address. I promptly then set it to forward everything to my normal account and never checked it again!


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## Romans922

Fred, 
I also suggest using an email you don't check often, then you won't be distracted from your work and home life, just for facebook.


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## Rangerus

once you master facebook, we are going to teach you how to twitter.


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## ww

etexas said:


> My wife wants me to get one.......I can't....hearing from people I have not heard from in 20 years! Thats a NIGHTMARE, like being stuck in your High-School reunion!!!!! Class of 88 ROCKS!



It sure does!  Those were the days!


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## Herald

fredtgreco said:


> Blev3rd said:
> 
> 
> 
> Fred,
> 
> Welcome to the matrix....
> 
> Just make sure you set up your privacy settings and you will be fine. If you don't want to get an email every time something happens then just turn off the different emails. My wife and I have enjoyed being able to interact with family and friends. But you have to watch it because FB can be addicting
> 
> 
> 
> 
> John,
> 
> What privacy settings do you recommend or use? I have email notifications turned off for almost everything - since I have an iPhone, I can always check FB without a notification, and before I did that my inbox exploded.
Click to expand...


Fred, as a bare minimum only allow your profile and pics to be seen by friends. There some exceptions, but generally this will provide you anonymity on FB outside of your friends. The most notable exception is if you are members of a group (say,"Fan of Charles Spurgeon") with someone who is not your friend. They won't have access to your profile or pics, but they will be able to interact with you on the Spurgeon site.


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## BobVigneault

I ignore all the application requests. They are basically there to capture info for marketing purposes. Also, I don't understand why folks fill out every survey. The questions elicit enough personal information so that a fellow in Nigeria can send an email to your friends and pretend he is you long enough to have them send money to get him out of a crisis.

On the other hand, FB is a perfect way to keep in touch. We don't always have time for long conversations on the phone, but it is very easy to just 'keep in touch' or know that things are well with your friends and family, or that they need prayer and encouragement. In that regard, FB saves time.

I am using FB groups much like one would use Google groups, to collect the youth from our church to get a youth fellowship going.


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## LawrenceU

Fred is evidently getting FB down. I checked my page this morning and had a friend request from him. He made it through my vetting process.


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## Marrow Man

24 hours in, and Fred already has more than 100 friends! How humbling!


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## OPC'n

BobVigneault said:


> I ignore all the application requests. They are basically there to capture info for marketing purposes. Also, I don't understand why folks fill out every survey. The questions elicit enough personal information so that a fellow in Nigeria can send an email to your friends and pretend he is you long enough to have them send money to get him out of a crisis.
> 
> On the other hand, FB is a perfect way to keep in touch. We don't always have time for long conversations on the phone, but it is very easy to just 'keep in touch' or know that things are well with your friends and family, or that they need prayer and encouragement. In that regard, FB saves time.
> 
> I am using FB groups much like one would use Google groups, to collect the youth from our church to get a youth fellowship going.



How does the guy in Nigeria have access to my PI if he isn't my friend? I don't accept friends that I don't know.


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## Scottish Lass

sjonee said:


> How does the guy in Nigeria have access to my PI if he isn't my friend? I don't accept friends that I don't know.



If you use any 3rd-party apps/games/whathaveyou, you agreed to let it mine your data when you click the allow button to open the app. Now, I don't put a ton of stuff on my info page--if an old friend needs my phone number, she can message me for it, but I do play a few games.


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## Semper Fidelis

fredtgreco said:


> Ok,
> 
> So as some of you know, I joined Facebook this morning. It is really surreal. I did this mostly to get a feel for what it was like as more of the young people from our Church are involved in Facebook. I also found out that there are a great many PCA ministers on FB (maybe for the same reason?). While trying to work, my email is going berserk. I have like 40 "friends" now, and even got a request from John Frame!
> 
> I am also now understanding how people have information overload and the inability to think through things methodically. I am getting "Wall postings" "Notes" email like messages, friend requests, group suggestions and all kinds of other things that are making me dizzy. I have no idea what is public, what is semi-private and what is private. Does anyone have a Facebook 101 manual to instruct me? Twitter was WAY less complicated and easier to understand.



Well Marcia, I mean Fred!, it's not surprising that the most popular guy on the PB would get lots of requests for Friends.

I don't have much time for FB and sometimes regret joining it. I will occasionally read my wall but mostly just respond to the occasional Friend request.

I don't approve every incoming Friend request because I don't want to become innundated with the goings on of everybody I know or am loosely associated with. I also find it awkward to accept Friend requests from young ladies that are Friends of other friends that I don't really know so I turn them down.

I turn down "causes" as a general rule and you do need to be aware that there are some Facebook apps that will automatically share PII. I recommend you go into your settings and set your security settings.


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## tdowns

*Me too....*



KMK said:


> I couldn't handle it. I shut my Facebook down after a couple of weeks because I was so overwhelmed. I had many friend requests from people whom I hadn't spoken to in decades. It was too emotionally draining for me.



I did the same. Mine was hacked, and it sent out virus filled Valentines to all my Friends, which, my wife was not happy about when I got thank yous from the women, nor my male friends-lol.....needless to say, that was a bummer....so, when I was changing my password, checking my computer, etc...I just deactivated it....for above reasons.

I'll prob. fire it back up one of these days.


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## BobVigneault

Wow, you are a babe in the woods. This is the day of google stats and metrics, spiders, bots, trojan horses and the greatest gift to marketers and hackers everywhere.......METADATA!

Look at the URL of your FB page. There isn't even an 's' at the end of 'http'. Your information is passing back and forth without encryption. 

Don't put any information on an insecure site that could be used by an identity crook.

When a person fills out one of those surveys it always asks permission to mine your data. How polite! Who writes those apps? Are they putting those on FB just for your entertainment. Read the license agreement that you agreed to when you joined.

I'm not saying Facebook isn't a great thing. I encourage my friends and family to join. But remember, you are giving information to somebody and you need to be vigilante in your caution regarding out that info may be used.



sjonee said:


> How does the guy in Nigeria have access to my PI if he isn't my friend? I don't accept friends that I don't know.


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## OPC'n

BobVigneault said:


> Wow, you are a babe in the woods. This is the day of google stats and metrics, spiders, bots, trojan horses and the greatest gift to marketers and hackers everywhere.......METADATA!
> 
> Look at the URL of your FB page. There isn't even an 's' at the end of 'http'. Your information is passing back and forth without encryption.
> 
> Don't put any information on an insecure site that could be used by an identity crook.
> 
> When a person fills out one of those surveys it always asks permission to mine your data. How polite! Who writes those apps? Are they putting those on FB just for your entertainment. Read the license agreement that you agreed to when you joined.
> 
> I'm not saying Facebook isn't a great thing. I encourage my friends and family to join. But remember, you are giving information to somebody and you need to be vigilante in your caution regarding out that info may be used.
> 
> 
> 
> sjonee said:
> 
> 
> 
> How does the guy in Nigeria have access to my PI if he isn't my friend? I don't accept friends that I don't know.
Click to expand...


Thanks, Bob, I seriously didn't know this! I went and took off all PI!


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## ColdSilverMoon

Did Pastor Greco set some kind of record for the fastest Facebook member ever to hit 100 friends? Wow, I looked at his profile this AM and he was at 114 and still climbing...impressive!


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## janimar

I recently joined Twitter but I have been on FB for over 2 years now and have found it very useful. I first got on it to keep in contact with current and former students. It has opened a world of old friends that has been good. You can't let it take over but it has been a helpful tool to keep up with people especially since I left SC after being their for 14 years.

Janice 
Granite Classical Tutorials
Chapelgate PCA
Sykesville, MD


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## fredtgreco

ColdSilverMoon said:


> Did Pastor Greco set some kind of record for the fastest Facebook member ever to hit 100 friends? Wow, I looked at his profile this AM and he was at 114 and still climbing...impressive!



And this is the funny thing about Facebook: the same comment coming from a NYC physician and a young man in my church!

Gotta love it.


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## fredtgreco

Question for veteran users: how do you delete something from Facebook "News Feed?" 

Someone posted a picture, and his "friends" thought it permissible to use foul language. Now I have that on my "News Feed" and I don't want others (or my kids seeing that). If I have to, I will "unfriend" the person just to get it off my "page," but I'd rather not have to be that drastic.

Any help please?


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## Scottish Lass

You can hoverto the right of the item and a blue box with a pencil should appear. You should be able to choose "See less of ____". Clicking that and refreshing usually works. They will be changing all this next week, as well.


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## SpokenFor

And now that you've master Facebook - they are going to change it all around on you in the next couple weeks!!!



(BTW- the app that lets you get a free Whopper at BK for deleting 10 friends has been taken down.)


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## fredtgreco

Scottish Lass said:


> You can hoverto the right of the item and a blue box with a pencil should appear. You should be able to choose "See less of ____". Clicking that and refreshing usually works. They will be changing all this next week, as well.



Nope. Did that and can't get rid of it. Very annoying.


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## Scottish Lass




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## Reepicheep

I highly recommend all Facebook users read this excellent post:

Redeeming Social Life Online | The Gospel and Culture Project


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