How to Make Facebook a Positive Experience

I love Facebook. I love being connected with people from all over the world; sharing laughs, interesting facts, and goofy memes. As a Work-From-Home Mommy and Goddess of Owie Kisses, Facebook is the salvation of my sanity. But, this was not always the case.

For a while, my news feed was flooded with angry rants from gun-fanatics, bigotry, ignorant memes, mindless sheeple reposts, and just plain stupidity. The negativity was overwhelming, and sometimes I'd log off Facebook feeling like I was in an abusive relationship that I didn't want to go back to.

Here are some really simple things I did to remove the negativity and make my FB experience less nasty.

Surround Yourself with Positive People

This sounds obvious, but find the best, most positive people you can and surround yourself with them by Friending and/or following their posts, as well as liking and making sure to "Get Notifications" from their Pages.

On the flip side, unFriend people who keep posting things that upset and annoy you. UnLike Pages that spreads misinformation, inflammatory comments, and encourages negative attention. This includes co-workers, real-world friends, and even family members.

Social media is supposed to be social; a place you can go for enjoyable social interaction. Not everyone gets that. Not everyone cares; they think their right to expression is more important than consideration towards others. Some people's online behaviour is the equivalent of farting in a packed elevator. No one needs to have their social time marred by a serial-tooter.

Limit Access to Negative People You HAVE to Be Around

Unfortunately, there will always be people you need to keep in touch with, but don't want to see in your news feed. Maybe it's because they post about every sip of coffee they take, practice obnoxious Vaguebook habits, share bogus celebrity death notices, or post inflammatory statements. Whatever your reason for hating the sight of their name on your news feed, I won't judge you. I've been there.

For these people, Facebook has kindly created the "unFollow" option. This will ensure you're still Friends with them on Facebook, preserving the peace in your life and allowing private messages from landing in the "Other" folder.

Best of all, it will keep your news feed free of their drama.

Did you know that Facebook recently provided users with the ability to set our news feed preferences?

If you go to the drop-down menu at the top right-hand side of your Facebook screen, you'll see the option near the bottom. Click on it and you will be shown a pop-up screen giving you several options:

• Prioritize who you see first;
• Unfollow people; and
• Reconnect with people you've unfollowed.

That's it! Happy tailoring, and enjoy how much better your news feed becomes ~*~