How do I limit my Facebook Feed?

With over 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook can feel overwhelming at times. The constant stream of posts, photos, videos, ads, and notifications from friends, family, Groups, and Pages you follow can make your News Feed cluttered. If you find yourself spending too much time aimlessly scrolling on Facebook or getting distracted by less important posts, limiting your News Feed can help you stay focused on the content you care about most. Here are some tips for cleaning up and customizing your Facebook News Feed.

Unfollow friends, Groups, and Pages

The easiest way to clean up your News Feed is to unfollow friends, Groups, and Pages that consistently share content you don’t care about. Rather than fully unfriending or unliking these connections, unfollowing them will remove their posts from your News Feed without removing the connection or requiring you to refriend or relike the Page later. Here’s how to unfollow on Facebook:

To unfollow a friend:

1. Go to their profile page
2. Hover over the Friends button below their cover photo
3. Select Unfollow from the dropdown menu

To unfollow a Group:

1. Go to the Group’s page
2. Click the Members option in the left sidebar
3. Hover over the Joined button next to your name and image
4. Select Unfollow Group from the dropdown menu

To unfollow a Page:

1. Go to the Page’s profile
2. Hover over the Liked button below the cover photo
3. Click Unfollow Page in the dropdown menu

Review your list of friends, joined Groups, and liked Pages periodically to clean up your feed. Unfollowing connections posting irrelevant or annoying content can make a huge difference in feed clutter.

Adjust News Feed preferences

In addition to unfollowing connections, you can also adjust your News Feed preferences to control the type of posts you see. Here’s how to update your preferences on desktop:

1. Click the arrow in the top right corner and select Settings & Privacy
2. Select News Feed Preferences on the left sidebar
3. Prioritize who you see first by dragging the slider next to friends, family, Groups, and Pages
4. Tailor the type of content by clicking the dropdowns next to different post types and selecting See First, Normal, or See Less
5. Click Save Changes

On mobile:

1. Tap the three line Menu icon
2. Go to Settings & Privacy > News Feed Preferences
3. Prioritize and filter content with the available preferences

Take advantage of these options to reduce less important posts and boost content from your closest connections. For example, you may want to see more posts from close family and friends and fewer funny videos, news articles, or promotional content from brands and media.

Use Lists to filter friends

Lists allow you to group friends into specific feeds based on relationships like family, coworkers, or close friends. You can then visit each list individually to scroll through posts just from those connections. Here’s how to create Lists on desktop:

1. Click Lists in the left sidebar
2. Click Create List at the top
3. Enter a name for the list like “Close Friends”
4. Start typing in friends’ names to add them to the list
5. Click Create

On mobile:

1. Tap the Menu icon and select Lists
2. Tap Create New List
3. Give the list a name and add members
4. Tap Create

The members you add to a list will still appear in your main News Feed, but viewing list-specific feeds lets you scroll through less cluttered content. Create lists for your most important relationships and interests.

Use filters to limit certain post types

If you want to entirely remove certain post types from your News Feed like videos, links, or photos, you can set up custom filters. Here’s how to add filters on desktop:

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > News Feed Preferences
2. Scroll down and click + Add next to Custom Filters
3. Select Hide Posts With from the first dropdown menu
4. Choose the type of content you want to hide from the second dropdown menu
5. Click Add Filter

On mobile:

1. Go to Menu > Settings & Privacy > News Feed Preferences
2. Tap Custom Filters
3. Tap + Add Filter
4. Select Hide Posts With and choose post type
5. Tap Add Filter

Use filters sparingly, as you don’t want to entirely remove meaningful content from people you care about. But reducing specific post types like links, photos, or videos can quickly declutter your feed.

Limit time spent on Facebook

If you find yourself constantly distracted by Facebook, consider limiting your time on the platform. Facebook has built-in settings to help you cap your daily usage. On desktop:

1. Go to Settings & Privacy > Your Time on Facebook
2. Toggle on Set A Daily Time Limit and choose the amount of time
3. Select Get Notifications When Time’s Up to get reminders
4. Click Next and select Snooze Notifications to take a break when you’ve reached your limit

On mobile:

1. Tap Menu > Your Time on Facebook
2. Choose Set Daily Reminder and pick a time limit
3. Toggle Remind Me When Time’s Up to get notifications
4. Select Snooze Notifications to take breaks when you hit your limit

You can customize when your time starts, ends, and get lockout periods where you can’t access Facebook after going over your allotted time. Using these tools can curb mindless scrolling and keep your usage focused.

Turn off notifications

The constant pings, vibrations, and red notification bubbles from Facebook can perpetually pull you into the app. Muting notifications can remove these distractions so you intentionally visit Facebook when you want to, not because of FOMO. On desktop:

1. Click the arrow in the top right and select Settings & Privacy
2. Choose Notifications on the left sidebar
3. Toggle off the notifications you want to mute

On mobile:

1. Tap the Menu icon and select Settings & Privacy
2. Tap Notifications
3. Turn off the specific notification types you want to mute

You can tailor notifications to remove clutter while still receiving important alerts. For example, you may want to keep notifications about messages, events, or posts you’re tagged in but mute less relevant ones like friend requests or trending posts.

See less of certain people and topics

Tired of endless political rants, baby photos, or workout videos? Use Facebook’s Snooze and Unfollow features to see fewer posts about certain people or topics. Here’s how to snooze someone on desktop:

1. Click the three dots above their post in your News Feed
2. Select Snooze [name] for 30 days

On mobile:

1. Press and hold on their name above their post
2. Tap Snooze [name] for 30 days

To temporarily hide posts with certain keywords, hashtags, or phrases:

1. Click the three dots above a post in your feed with the keyword/hashtag
2. Select Snooze [keyword] for 30 days

Snoozing selectively hides content for 30 days before it reappears. You can also unfollow friends or Groups consistently posting certain content types or topics.

See more of what you like

Now that you’ve cleaned up your feed, fill it back up with content you enjoy seeing. Take advantage of tools like Saved, Friends, Groups, Pages, and more to bring positive content into your feed:

• Frequently interact with and react to posts you like to see more of that type of content.
• Proactively visit Friends, Groups, and Pages you like to check for new posts.
• “Save” posts you want to easily access later.
• Discover new Pages that share content you find interesting.
• Join Groups around your hobbies, interests, causes, and identity.

Actively seeking out more of the social connections and content you enjoy makes Facebook fun rather than a mindless time-sink.

Conclusion

Facebook doesn’t have to be an endless jumble of random content. Take control of your News Feed by unfollowing, filtering, snoozing, and limiting your time on the platform. Prioritize seeing more posts from your closest friends and family, Groups that share your interests, and Pages with content you care about. The tools are there to tailor Facebook into a place for meaningful connections instead of aimless scrolling. Don’t let your News Feed control you – curate it to fit your life.