Facebook Friends List Can Help Control Your News Feed

Facebook Friend List is a powerful tool that allows you to control who sees what you do on Facebook, as well as how much you see of each friend's activity in your news feed.

What's a Friend List?

The Facebook Friend List serves two functions:

• It lets you decide which friends can see each status update you send.
• It lets you decide how much and what type of status updates and activity notices you want to see from each of your friends.

By default, the world's largest social network creates a bunch of Facebook friend lists for you. These include ones for your close friends, acquaintances, and any work or college groups you may belong to on the network. You can also create a custom friend list.

Why Facebook Lists Make Things Easier

One convenient thing about a friend list is that you can choose a setting for everyone on it with a single click. That saves you from individually editing the display settings for each friend, one by one, to hide Facebook friends so that their updates don't show on your news feed. Just add them to your list with people you feel similarly about.

Distant acquaintances might go on one list, for example, and long-lost childhood friends to another. Work colleagues could form one list, and friends who share a hobby with you could be another.

Control the Content of Your News Feed

At the very least, put the people you don't want to hear much from onto a particular list. If you do that, it only takes one click to change the setting for how often you want their updates to appear in your Facebook news feed.

Reach a Specific List of People

Having these people on one list allows you to selectively send a status update to a particular list and not have anyone else see it.

First, put your best pals on your Close Friends list. Then, when you send an update you don't want anyone else to see, select the Close Friends list from the publishing box. Your note is only sent to that list.

To send posts to certain lists, select the drop-down menu to the left of the post button and select the list you want.

You can also do the reverse—block a list of friends from seeing a particular post. To do this, select the Block this list option when you send the update.

How to Add People to a Facebook Friend List

Follow these steps to add a friend to any list:

1. Hover over the name of the individual you want to add to your list, then select the Friends button.

2. Select Edit Friend List.

3. Choose which friend list you want the person to be included in.

The default Friend List options are:

• Close Friends is a list that Facebook automatically creates based on how much you interact with people on the network.
• The Acquaintances list is not populated automatically; you add people to it manually.
• Add people to the Restricted list if you only wish to share with them when you've manually chosen to do so.

How to Create a Custom Facebook Friend List

Follow these steps to create a new list:

1. From the main menu on the left, select Friend Lists.

   You may have to select See More to reveal the Friend List option.

2. This takes you to your page for managing your Facebook friend lists. Edit any list by selecting it.

3. Select Create List to start a new list. Give your list a name and add members. Type in the Members box to reveal a list of friends to choose from.

4. Select Create when you finish.

   You can add more friends to a list after you've created it—either from the list's main page or by selecting an individual from the News Feed.

How to Share Content With People in a Friend List

Now when you post, you can set it so that only those included in a given list can see the post. To make a post for a specific list, do the following:

1. On the News Feed, select the What's on your mind box to create a new post.

2. Write or create your post, then select the Friends button.

3. Scroll down and select Specific Friends.

4. Type the name of the friend list with whom you would like to share the post. Select the list, then choose Save Changes.

5. When you're ready to publish, select Post. Your content is shared with the friend list you chose.