Overwhelmed by your Facebook news feed having a bit too much news about the world and not about your friends? Facebook is a way we can find out how our friends are doing. We can’t get that information on Google or the evening news. So why is it that so many people find it necessary to fill up the feed with everything but information about themselves? Why do they feel it is essential for them to educate and make others aware? And why is it that what they want to make us aware of is only bad news?

It can get a little overwhelming reading about all the bad that is going on in the world. Bees dying, poisons in food, conspiracy theories, mass murders – you name it, there are some people who are convinced that they have to share their fears with everyone. Think of it this way – this is just the same as coming to your house and dumping a load of garbage in your living room. They didn’t even knock on the front door and ask you if you wanted their garbage. They just barged on in.

But – how do you filter out those people yet still stay in touch? You could just “unfollow” and you’ll still be friends, but then it is hard to remember who to check up on. Sometimes they might share something personal. What with the decline in newspaper readership, Facebook is often how we find out that a friend’s parent or spouse has died, or that they are going to get married, or that they are going to have a child. So sometimes we need to see what they have to say.

Here’s how – create an “interest list”. Go to your home page, and then look on the right. Find “interests”, click “more” to the right of the word, and then click where it says “add interests”. Name a new list there. You can add friends on the right who feel it necessary to share every conspiracy theory, political rant, or social woe. Then go to each friend’s page and “unfollow”. You are still friends, and you can still see what they have to say when you go back to that interest list. But otherwise, your newsfeed will have only the stuff you can handle.