Finally, a Way to Control Your Facebook Feed

For so many people, Facebook is a wonderful way to keep up with the lives of our friends, family, and grandkids. It’s a window into birthdays, vacations, and everyday moments. However, as we scroll through our news feed, we often find it cluttered with things we don’t care about like political rants, ads for things we’d never buy, or endless posts from games our friends are playing.

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This can make using the app feel like a chore, a noisy room where you’re struggling to hear the conversations that matter. It can feel like you have no control over what you see. But what if there was a quiet, polite way to tell Facebook, “No thank you, I’d rather not see this sort of thing anymore”? There is. It’s a secret little button that helps you train Facebook to show you more of what you love and less of the noise.

The Secret ‘Show Me Less of This’ Button on Facebook

Training Your Personal Newspaper Editor

To understand how this works, it helps to think of your Facebook News Feed as the front page of your own personal newspaper, one that is published just for you every minute of the day. The “algorithm” is your editor-in-chief.

This editor’s only job is to fill that front page with stories it thinks you will find most interesting. It makes its guesses based on your reading habits: which articles you spend time on (posts you “Like” or share), and which columnists you engage with (friends you comment on). Sometimes you spend too much time looking that things that bother you and the algorithm misinterprets that as interest.

The problem is, the editor isn’t a mind reader. Sometimes it gets things wrong and puts a story on your front page that you find boring, annoying, or irrelevant. The “Not interested” button is your way of giving your editor clear, direct feedback. It’s like sending a quiet note that says, “Thank you, but please, less of this type of story in my newspaper from now on.” Trust me, it’s worth it to spend a little time training it to show you things you enjoy!

The How-To Guide: Taking Control of Your Feed

The next time you are scrolling and see a post you are not interested in—whether it’s an ad, a suggested video from a page you don’t follow, or just a topic you’re tired of—here’s what you do:

1. Find three little dots (...) in the top-right corner of the post itself. This is the menu button for that specific post.

2. Tap on those three dots. A menu will pop up with a list of options.

3. Tap on the option that says “Not interested” or a similar phrase like “Why am I seeing this ad?”

4. That’s it! The post will often disappear, and Facebook will show a little confirmation message.

You have just sent a powerful signal to the algorithm. You’ve told it, “This content? It’s not for me.”

What Happens Next?

One note won’t change the entire newspaper overnight. But if you get into the habit of giving this feedback regularly, you are actively training your personal editor. Over time, your editor will learn your true tastes and get much better at filling your front page with photos from your grandkids and updates from your gardening group, while leaving out the “junk mail” ads and sensational headlines you don’t care for. You are taking back editorial control and curating a much more enjoyable newspaper for yourself and make you happier.

Quick Tech Tip

What if it’s a good friend who is just posting way too much for a few weeks (maybe they’re on a long vacation)? For this, there’s a gentler option. After tapping the three dots, you can also choose to “Snooze [Friend’s Name] for 30 days.” This will temporarily hide their posts from your feed without you having to “unfriend” them. It’s a great way to take a little break without hurting any feelings.

Tech Term Demystified: ‘Algorithm’

We hear this word all the time. An “algorithm” is simply a set of rules or instructions that a computer follows to complete a task. In the case of Facebook, the task is “sort through the thousands of possible posts and show the user the 30 most interesting ones.” The algorithm is the secret recipe Facebook uses to make that decision, weighing factors like who posted it, how many people have liked it, and, most importantly, the feedback you have given it in the past.

Good News Byte

This trend of giving users more direct control over their algorithmic feeds is growing across the internet. You can now find similar feedback tools on other platforms. On YouTube, you can click a menu and say “Don’t recommend channel,” and on streaming services like Netflix, giving a “thumbs down” on a movie you disliked teaches the service to stop recommending similar ones. It’s a positive shift toward a more personalized and user-controlled internet.

Did You Know?

The iconic “Like” button on Facebook was almost called the “Awesome” button. The engineers debated for a long time about the best word to use for a quick, positive reaction. They eventually settled on the simpler and more universal word “Like,” and it was launched to the world in 2009, forever changing how we interact with content online.

Your Turn to Train Your Algorithm!

This week, try it just once. As you scroll through Facebook, find one post, any post, that doesn’t interest you. It could be an ad, a suggested article, anything. Practice tapping the three dots in the corner and selecting “Show less.” It’s a small, simple action, but it’s the first step to making your time on Facebook more enjoyable and more personal to you.

Wishing you a week of better newsfeeds,

Steve