But like your basement, social accounts can be kept tidy with some occasional attention. And what better time for cleansing and renewal than spring? Here are some tips for cleaning out your feeds and timelines and making social platforms more useful.
Prioritize your friends
To fill your news feed with more photographs and status updates from people you truly care about, separate your Facebook friends into two groups: “friends” and “acquaintances.” Facebook will feature your close friends’ posts more prominently in your news feed.
Unfollow the ranters
If you would rather skip the endless dog photos a former roommate posts on Facebook, you don’t need to go as far as removing him from your list of friends. Instead, when you see your friend’s name appear in your news feed, pull down the arrow on the right side of the post and click “Unfollow.”
Cut out annoying ads
You can also hide specific advertisements on Facebook. Don’t want to see ads for “officeappropriate yoga pants” ? Pull down the arrow next to the post in your news feed and choose the option to hide all ads from that brand.
Control past Posts
You can make all of your past posts viewable only to your friends and anyone tagged in a post and their friends. Go to your Facebook privacy settings, and under “Who can see my stuff?” click on “Limit Past Posts.”
