How to Unfollow Someone on Facebook

If you regularly use Facebook, yet you are frustrated with some of the updates that show up on your feed, it may be time to unfollow a few people. Until now, maybe you did not realize this feature even existed. You do not need to unfriend your Aunt Marge just because she posts 20 cat photos each day on Facebook. You can unfollow her instead!

I assumed everyone knew about the unfollow feature on Facebook, but recently, I've shown several people how to take advantage of this wonderful option. You can simply unfollow someone when their status updates frustrate you or clutter your feed. This is the perfect option for anyone that you want to remain friends with on Facebook, but they tend to post too much information.

Let me tell you how you can unfollow anyone on your friend list that you may have been considering unfriending. This is the perfect way to keep friends and family on your list. You can view their page at any time as you normally would, and they can still view all your posts (unless they unfollow you as well). It is as if nothing changed and they will never know you no longer follow them.

The first way you can unfollow someone on Facebook is simply by going on that person's page. You may want to review that person's page first anyway. Sure, you can click the "Following" button again at any time if you change your mind, but you may want to decide why you want to unfollow him or her in the first place.

• Is this person really a friend?
• Are you never going to contact this person again?
• Do you even know this person?

It is possible you may want to simply click the "Friends" button because you don't want any type of online friendship with this person. If you only unfollow him or her, that person will still be able to follow you. If, however, you simply want to rid your feed of this person's constant updates, click the "Following" button located in the bottom of that person's cover photo. It instantly stops you from following that person. You can now remain friends. You can also change your mind and click the "Follow" button if you do want to get status updates from your friend again.

If you would prefer, you can also opt to unfollow someone right in your feed (news stories). Perhaps you "liked" a company or a fan page online, never realizing you would receive constant updates from them. You can opt out of receiving those updates all the time by clicking on the small arrow in the upper right hand corner of the block. You then click on "Unfollow _____" to stop getting updates from this person or company.

I've found the need to "unfollow" most restaurants in my area simply because their ads were making me hungry. It is not that I dislike them now, but my urge to lick my computer screen was starting to become overwhelming. (I am, however, not unfollowing Ocean City as the photo to the right may indicate... I just needed an example.)

If you are wondering what are some good examples of when the unfollow option is a better idea than unfriending on Facebook, I am happy to give you a few.

• Your relatives insist on being Facebook friends with you, but they tend to post status updates that frustrate you. Perhaps they have different political or religious beliefs that you. It is fine to still remain friends with them (especially if you want to keep peace in the family), but you probably don't want to view their updates all the time.
• One of your friends is full of drama and it brings you down. You still want to be able to tag your friend in photos, occasionally visit her page, or allow her to visit your page. However, the continuous dramatic updates are more than you can handle on a daily basis.
• Some friends share too many funny viral videos, photos, etc. If you want to visit that person's page and have access to his normal updates, it is best not to unfriend him. However, if you have to look at one more dog jumping on a trampoline video from him, you are going to scream.
• You "liked" a fan page, product page, or something else along those lines. Although you still want to like that product or even feel passionate about it, they post too many ads all day long. Yes, you are happy to "like" a page, especially for contest purposes. No, you don't need to see one post after another about it.

If you've been reading this and unfollowing someone instead of unfriending someone seems appealing to you, I am happy I could help. I find unfriending someone occasionally causes hurt feelings. Unfollowing is often a good solution for a very basic (and silly) problem that is easy to resolve.

Copyright ©2014 Jeannieinabottle