Susieqsinger

Today’s topic was supposed to be white noise. But honestly, who cares about writing or reading about white noise?! Cause I sure as hell don’t. I decided to write about Facebook. We all use it and we’re all addicted to it to some degree. What most of you don’t know is how you are sharing your information, and that’s what I really want to write about today.

It’s no secret that Facebook is continuously changing its privacy settings, features and our profiles. However, a lot of you don’t realize that with the last big change your privacy settings got messed up. I don’t have an answer as to how or why, but they did. For example, I always have my privacy and sharing set to “custom” because I don’t want to share everything with everyone. After the last change I quickly realized that my posts were being shared with all my friends; which is not what I had it set to. When I went into my privacy settings all of my custom settings were set back to friends. I was pretty annoyed. I then started noticing that more than half of the people on my Facebook were posting updates and pictures that were being shared with the public, but none of them realized it. I posted a few status updates alerting friends to help give people a heads up.

What I want to accomplish in this blog is pretty simple, and that’s to help you figure out how YOU are sharing. For starters, ALL cover photos are public. You cannot change that; it’s just the way Mark Zuckerberg and his team of social networking guru’s have it set to be. Your profile picture is automatically set to public; however, you can change the settings on this one.

If you care or are “worried” about what you are sharing and to who; than here are a few helpful hints for you.

Look at your recent past posts; mobile uploads, status updates, ect. Just under your name it shows you how long ago you shared the post and it also has a little icon next to it. This icon indicates how you are sharing.

If you see a little world, that essentially means you are sharing that post or picture with the world. It’s a public post and anyone who visits your page, friend or non-friend, can see this post.

If you see one head with a smaller head to the right, that means the post is shared with “Friends only” and that all of your Facebook friends are able to see that post.

If you see multiple heads that means you are sharing with “Friends of Friends” which means exactly that, anyone you are not connected with on Facebook who is a friend of someone you are connected with can see this post.

If you see a gear that means you have customized your settings for specific people or lists. (Yes, you can create lists.)

A lot of my friends have asked me how to change and fix their settings. When you are signed in, whether you are on your profile page or on the home page, there is a gear at the top right hand corner, to the right of your name. Click on the gear and you’ll get a drop down menu with “Privacy Settings” as an option. Once you are there you will see “Privacy Setting and Tools” and under that is “Who Can See My Stuff?” When you click “Edit” it will tell you how you are sharing. If you want to change this you need to click the edit drop down menu. Side note, in order to share with “Friends of Friends” you have to click “Custom” which will say Share with these people or lists and there is a drop down menu with options like Only Me, Friends of Friends, ect. This is also where you can “block” people from seeing your posts by typing their name under “Don’t Share With These People.” You are able to share with Friends of Friends or a specific list of people and still block specific people from seeing posts here. Putting people in the Don’t share with section does not block them from your entire profile, just from posts. So essentially you remain connected with them, but they simply cannot see anything you post. If you want to actually block someone from being able to find your profile, look to the left within Privacy Settings and click on “Blocking” and this will disable anyone you put here from finding you.

Now, a lot of you may also not be aware that once a post is made you can change the sharing of that post as well just by clicking on the icon as you will get a drop down and you can change it. You can also change it before you post right from your profile page. For example, maybe you have your regular sharing set to “Custom” but you want to share something with all your “Friends.” Once your cursor is in the box to update your status the little icon with a drop down appear at the bottom right. Please note that if you change this in one post from here it usually changes it for ALL posts here after. You will have to go back into your main privacy settings and reset/remind Facebook to go back to how you want it. If you are going from a limited audience to everyone than I suggest posting first and then changing the sharing setting after.

Another fact you may not be aware of or haven’t figure out yet. If you “like” or “comment” on a public post it will show up in ALL of your friends Newsfeed. Mutual friends will also see what you “like” and “comment” on. I have limited my likes and comments on pictures, posts and pages that are public for this very reason. I find it more than annoying that my entire Newsfeed is flooding with what everyone elses activity.

Facebook is public and they are ALL about sharing YOUR information with marketers and advertisers. They want to sell your information so people know how to market to you. But it’s really up to you as to how much you want to share. Remember, no matter what your profile is set to, it’s never really “private.” Your information will forever be “owned” by Facebook and live somewhere in the cyber world.

Sometimes I think I should teach a class on social networking and media, but for now I can simply blog about it. I sincerely hope this helps and comment if you have any questions. Happy Facebooking readers!