Facebook seems to think it’s better to ‘Unfollow’ rather than to ‘Unfriend’ pals, family members or acquaintances who get on your nerves when you’re scrolling through your News Feed. So the company has announced a change in settings which will enable users to manage what they see in their stream without hurting anyone’s feelings.
The controls for News Feed in Facebook have started displaying a list of the top Perons, Pages and Groups that have turned up in your stream over the week gone by. You can stop seeing stories you dislike by hitting ‘Unfollow’ for the ‘offending’ friend, Group or Page. This is also the place you come to when pangs of guilt are gnawing at your insides because you ‘Unfollowed’ a pal who happens to love PDA as much as their better half.
Facebook already had the option of allowing you to hide a post you didn’t want to spot in News Feed by tapping the arrow on the upper right hand side of it. The social network has taken this a step further by letting you see less from that person, group or page, right from this conveniently placed menu. Hiding posts or ‘Unfollowing’ people is a more polite way of ignoring them. They don’t realize you’ve done so and you can leave it up to someone else to tell them how annoying they are.
Also see: You’ll never believe what Facebook is doing to click-baiting
Remember, you can start ‘Following’ someone you had kicked out of your News Feed once again, by going to settings. All of the latest controls we’ve discussed above have begun rolling out on desktop and mobile platforms already, while the set of options for giving feedback about your stream is only available on PC for now.