How to Create Friend Lists for More Privacy on Facebook

What does your friend list look like on Facebook? If you are like most people, it’s getting too big and out-of-hand, and you’ve been concerned about it ever since you had to accept your mother-in-law’s friend request. I found myself never using Facebook at all anymore, because I didn’t necessarily want to share details of my life with everyone on my list. Then I decided to clean up and organize my Friend list.

Take a look at your list, and put everyone in a category. I had my close friends, friends from my kid’s schools, college friends, acquaintances I can’t bear or bother to defriend, family members I love, and those family members not-so-much. Work people, old work people, mommy groups, and so on. Create and name as many separate friend lists as you like, then give or block access to specific items you share for each list.

Here’s how to do it: Go to Friends, and then click the “Edit Friends” box in the upper right hand corner of the page, select “Create List” and then name your list. Then, choose friends for this group, and select “Create List”.

Now that you have created the lists, you can go through and edit your privacy settings. Select “Customize” next to a privacy option; to grant access select “Make this Visible to” or to block select “Hide this From” and type the name of the list, and then save.

Not that organized? You can also decide who can see anything you post, whether status update, a photo, or anything else on a per item basis. Click the lock icon, and select who can see that particular item.

It’s not that I am sharing extremely personal things on my Facebook page, but I don’t think I want every single person on my list to know I’m off to get coffee. An easy fix to a little more privacy, which is always a good thing.

–Angela Skinner Mullen