Whether you enjoy spending time on Facebook or just do it out of obligation, there are plenty of ways to make the experience more pleasant.
I’ve been spending more time on this site lately after being placed in a few Facebook groups that I need to follow.
So I also delved into Facebook’s labyrinthine settings menu, looking for ways to protect privacy, lock down profile access, and generally make the site less obnoxious.
Here are 11 quick changes I made and also recommend for anyone who spends time on Facebook: Find Facebook settings Most of the adjustments below are in the main settings menu of Facebook.
Facebook, here’s a little reminder on how to get there:
In the mobile app: Tap the “More” tab, then tap the gear icon at the top of the screen.
On the web: Click the down arrow in the upper right corner, then select Settings & Privacy > Settings.
From now on, I’ll just refer to these menus as “Facebook Settings”.
Eliminate inconvenience
Turn off external notifications: Go to Facebook Settings > Notifications and you’ll find a list of controls so detailed that I can only assume Facebook wants to scare people.
I recommend scrolling down these settings to the “Where you will receive notifications” section.
For Email and SMS option, select “Required Notifications” and you will not receive any SMS or emails related to status updates, comments, etc.
You can then scroll up and experiment with the notification options in the app (although I like to disable all of these alerts in my phone’s settings menu).
No more video ratings: In a blatant attempt to increase viewership, Facebook puts a small dot above its videos tab even though it has nothing important to share.
To hide dots, go to Settings > Navigation Bar > Manage notification dots, then uncheck “Video.
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Customize Menu Bar: .
You can also hide videos and other unwanted tabs by going to Facebook Settings > Shortcuts > Navigation Bar in the mobile app.
Select “Pin” for the sections you are interested in and “Hide” for the sections you are not interested in.
Turn off autoplay: To further reduce video annoyance, turn off autoplay by going to Facebook Settings > Media, then select “Never autoplay videos.
” On the web, go to Settings > Video, then change “Autoplay videos” to “Off.
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Stop the dreaded data collection: By default, Facebook collects all kinds of data about the apps you use, websites you visit, and businesses you frequent, all for targeting purposes advertisement.
If you’ve ever felt like Facebook is recording your actual conversations, this widespread tracking could be the reason.
To stop this activity, go to the “Off-Facebook Activity” page (in the mobile app, you’ll find it under Facebook Settings > Off-Facebook Activity), then follow these two steps:
