Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world. First released on February 4th, 2004, it has grown to over 1.37 billion users as of December 2016. This website is available in more than 70 languages, and can be accessed on desktops, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and some game consoles. Facebook has become so popular because it offers a service that its competitors do not: an intuitive layout with many features designed for active daily use.
Facebook is an online social networking service that allows subscribers to find and interact with other people. Its user-friendly interface makes it possible for users to contact friends, family, colleagues, classmates, or others within the Facebook community. While some individuals are reluctant to share their personal information on Facebook, many are willing to post photos, status updates, and other content in order to connect with others in the field of their interest.
Facebook is the most popular social media network, and for good reason. It has a long list of features and benefits, and it's free to use. However, it isn't quite as simple as you may think. There are many people concerned about privacy on Facebook; they're not okay with handing over all of their personal information to the company.
Now it's that time of the year again, when Facebook makes some changes that cause everyone to go into a tizzy about privacy settings and “Big Brother is Watching” conspiracy theories about Facebook selling our information and the government intruding into our bedrooms at night or something along those lines. These are the kinds of occasions that often result in a flurry of status updates that are based on paranoid beliefs. I think they are founded with the best of intentions, but owing to the “telephone game effect,” they often wind up spreading inaccurate information and spreading misinformation. The most recent example I've seen expresses something similar to the following in a different wording:
Greetings, friends. I like to keep my Facebook profile private, save for people who are already friends with me. So, if you could just do the following, it would be much appreciated. Please do both of us a favor by not using the new Facebook timeline, which will be available to everyone later this week. Hover your cursor over my name above. After a few seconds, you'll see a box with the words “Subscribed” on it. Navigate to “comments and likes,” then uncheck the box that says “comments and likes.” Because of this, neither my postings nor yours to me will appear on the sidebar for everyone to see, and most significantly, hackers will be prevented from breaching our accounts. If you re-post this, I will reciprocate by doing the same for you. Because if you inform me that you've completed the task, I'll “like” it, and it will let you know that I've appreciated your efforts.
My first piece of advice in this regard is to be cautious anytime you encounter the phrase “re-post this.” Leaving everything aside, let's have a look at this post. A portion of it is correct. If you uncheck “comments and likes,” you will no longer be able to view the comments and likes left by that individual. However, your posts will no longer appear as a result of this. This has no impact on the content of your postings. More on it in a moment. This also has no impact on “hackers infiltrating our profiles,” as previously stated. Changing your own security settings is the only way to avoid being targeted by these enigmatic hackers.
What should I do now? Allow us to discuss your subscription preferences, your News Feed, the sidebar ticker, and your own postings.
“Can you tell me who it is?”
Who and what you see in your News Feed and in the sidebar ticker is determined by the people to whom you are subscribed, as well as the sort of content that each of those people provides. There are two options for modifying this information. One option is to visit a friend's profile page and hover your cursor over the word “Subscribe(d)” in the upper right corner. Two, modify the privacy settings of friends who appear in your News Feed. There are two options for doing this: Hover your cursor over the carrot symbol in the upper right corner of a post, or over the name of a friend.
The second strategy offers a greater number of alternatives. This is where you'll see the “comments and likes” that were indicated in the viral status update stated before. Alternatively, you may choose to unsubscribe from someone totally (which does not result in their being unfriended), to reduce the amount of information you receive from them by choosing “Only Important,” to receive only specified categories of updates, or to receive “Most Updates.”
The “List” option is the other component that I'd want to discuss in more detail. This will also have an impact on what appears on your home page. As an example, I have a list named “NYC” that has numerous friends/pages that I have gathered together. As soon as I choose that list from the left-hand side, I will only see those friends/pages in the area that would typically show the News Feed. I will not go into depth on how to make lists in this article, but I will most likely publish a series of articles on the subject and cover it in a future issue of the magazine.
“However, they are invading my personal space!”
The second issue raised by the aforementioned viral status post has to do with your own personal privacy settings. Keeping in mind the previous statement, this will prevent my posts and yours to me from appearing on the sidebar for everyone to view. Even if the information included in that update was wrong, it is rather simple to change the privacy settings for each of your articles. You may choose your audience for a post either while you're writing it or after you've finished writing it by clicking on the symbol that looks like a globe, friends, or a gear. Your postings may be available to the public, visible to friends only, visible to a mix of several lists, or exclusively visible to yourself (which baffles me still, but I digress). More information on this, as well as more privacy choices, may be found under the privacy settings tab on Facebook's main page.
Is it true that others may see your comments and likes since they are shown in their sidebar ticker? The unpleasant reality is that there is nothing you can do to change this. If you “like” or remark on a publicly viewable status, picture, link, or other piece of content, it will appear in the sidebar ticker of your friends and subscribers. If you “like” or remark on an item that is not publicly viewable, your action will only appear in the sidebar tickers of friends who can also see that same item, and not in the public sidebar tickers (ie., mutual friends). If this is something that troubles you, I would advise you to stay away from social media platforms. The underlying philosophy of social media is to bring people together based on common interests. Do not click “like” if you do not want people to know that you have shown an interest in anything. That is all there is to it. It's important to understand that when I “like” anything, I'm effectively supporting the concept or just stating, “Hey, I like this!” If you truly want to make a remark on anything without anybody else knowing about it, you may want to try sending that individual a private message on Facebook.
“Can you tell me who you are?”
People may subscribe to you on Facebook even if they are not “friends,” which is a relatively new feature on the social networking site. To put it another way, this is the same as following someone on Twitter. Subscribers will only be able to view posts that are publicly available. Anyone who sends you a friend request instantly becomes a subscriber, as does anyone who visits your profile and clicks on the Subscribe button. By clicking on the drop-down arrow to the far right of your profile page, next to the “Likes” box, you will be able to see how many subscribers you have.
Remember that you can simply turn off Subscribers to prevent anybody from subscribing to your public postings if you want to avoid this. Always keep in mind that you will not be able to delete an individual subscriber from your list. The only method to prevent a particular individual from seeing your public postings is to entirely remove them from your account by adjusting your privacy settings on your Facebook profile.
