A close friend just messaged you on Facebook. You log on to view it, and suddenly you’re overwhelmed with high school friends (who you haven’t seen in years) boasting about their new diet and cryptic updates from your unemployed cousin. Next thing you know, you’re responding to game requests from your daughter’s playmate. And suddenly a half hour has passed…yet your message from your actual friend still awaits. If all this sound mentally exhausting, here are five tips to take control of your Facebook News Feed for good.

1. Become good friends with the “Unfollow” button

If you haven’t heard, there’s this amazing little tab that instantly allows a person to disappear from your News Feed. It’s called the “Unfollow” tab, and you’ll soon become best buddies with it.

Don’t worry though, when you unfollow someone, you’re not unfriending him or her. And they’ll never even know you did it (unless you tell them). It just keeps their TMI and updates about visiting the grocery store out of your feed.

To unfollow a person, click on the drop-down arrow in the top right corner of whomever’s post and click “Unfollow [Name]”

An alternative option is to visit said person’s profile and click on the “Following” button at the bottom-right corner of their cover photo. Once you click, it will change from “Following” to “Follow.” Goodbye happy hashtag Sarah. #solongSarah #won’tbemissed

2. Avoid content from Facebook Pages

What if you don’t want to unfollow someone but are sick of all the links they share? Not a problem. No more seeing surveys from Anotherdumbsurvey.net about which Hunger Games character you are or what baked good best describes your personality.

If you want to say goodbye to a page’s content you’re not interested in, click on that same top-right arrow in the upper right hand corner of the post and hit the “Hide all from [Page Name]” option.

3. Tell Facebook what posts annoy you

Sometimes you need to speak directly to the Facebook gods. Maybe you’re tired of seeing all those Facebook check ins, event spam, and baby pictures of little Tommy’s first experience eating cake…

To stop seeing posts you’re not interested in, hit that same drop-down arrow and select “I don’t want to see this.” In theory, and if you do it enough times to the same type of content, this should put an end to all those baby updates for good.

4. Complete a Facebook survey

Yes, they do exist. And well, they kind of seem to work. We’ve tested this feature out, and it appears that some of the more spammy/annoying posts have disappeared. So back to the top-right arrow we go.

Click on it and the very last option is “Take a survey to make News Feed better.” You’ll click through 15 screenshots and rate how much they look like an advertisement.

5. Adjust your News Feed preferences

At the top of your home page is a little arrow that, when clicked on, shows you the option to choose your “News Feed Preferences.” When you open it, you’ll see the content you’ve viewed most and what you’re currently following. Opt out of what you don’t want to see anymore.

Don’t get sucked into the online lives of people you rarely see in real life. Take action and control your News Feed today. If you’re looking to learn more about Facebook and its features, contact us and learn how we can help.