Protecting Your Career Through Restricted Lists On Facebook

Facebook does an excellent job of reestablishing communication with old friends and family members. It's great for keeping in touch with both personal and professional acquaintances. However, just because we have the ability to share everything with everyone does not mean that we necessarily should.

Your coworkers and superiors only see a certain side of you. Your managers, coworkers, partners, and clients should only see filtered versions of your online activity to protect your privacy and professional reputation. You can limit who sees what on Facebook, and you can adjust your own settings so that you don't see other people's private information unless you want to.

Before we get started, keep in mind that no matter how careful you are with your privacy settings, nothing you post online will ever be completely safe from prying eyes. Your content can be made public in a number of ways, including a bug that accidentally makes it public, a hacker who gains access to your account, or a screenshot that is shared with others. It might not be worth it to post something that could ruin a relationship or a career.

How does Facebook's Restricted List work?

By adding someone to a restricted list on Facebook, you can still be friends with them while restricting the content they can view from your profile. Unless you've made the post public (indicated by the globe icon), you can't expect them to see it unless you've explicitly invited them to do so. They have no idea they're on your no-contact list. You'll still be able to contact them through Messenger, and their updates will appear in your News Feed as usual.

If you don't want your boss to see everything you post on Facebook, for example, you can put him on a "restricted" list. Select "Friends" as your audience for future posts. Your post will be hidden from your manager, both in his News Feed and on your profile page. Even if your boss isn't on your approved-users list, he can see the post if you set the audience to "Public" or tag him in it.

There are many potential Facebook friends that you might want to exclude:

• People you don't care about, but also don't want to completely cut off as friends.
• Members of one's own social circle (and those of those friends) who are overly critical or prying.
• Friends you have made but don't really know all that well
• Relationships at work, even with your closest coworkers who still shouldn't know everything about you

Putting Individuals on Facebook's Prohibited List

If you own an iPhone, here is how to add contacts to your restricted list on Facebook:

• View the individual's profile here.
• To become friends, select the "friends" button next to their profile picture.
• Make the "Friends" option your default.
• Go into your settings and change where you keep your friend lists.
• Select "Private" from the menu.

In a browser, it works the same way:

• View the individual's profile here
• Mouse over the "Friends" tab.
• Input the list's name and click "Add to another list..."
• A restricted option is available.

In the same way, you can remove a friend from the restricted list by following the same procedures and deselecting "Restricted" when prompted. ”

Methods for Discovering If You Are Blocked on Facebook

Wanting to know if you've been added to anyone's restricted list If you're not comfortable just coming out and asking, there are other ways to learn the answer (if you care to).

• A separation between their public and private posts may account for any white space at the top of their profile. If their most recent update is set to private, you won't be able to see it.
• Check out their updates to see if they're all visible to the general public. If they are, then it's possible you're only seeing their public updates (and not their private ones). Another interpretation is that they share every detail online.
• You should have a common friend take a look at the profile and help you evaluate it.

Increased Options for Facebook Friends Management

Modify Who Has Access to All Previous Messages

If you've recently made changes to your Facebook privacy settings and don't want your old posts to be visible to the public, you can adjust their settings. All of your previously published content will have the "Friends" icon (representing two people) set to it automatically. The posts will still be visible to anyone who has been tagged in them. For the iPhone, follow these steps:

• To edit your profile, click here.
• To adjust preferences, select the cogwheel icon.
• Select "Show Private Quick Links"
• The option to "View additional privacy settings" must be selected.
• Make sure only selected people can view your past posts by selecting that option.
• Select "Restrict Archived Topics"
• Click "Limit Past Posts" in the confirmation window to set a time limit on older messages.

The browser-based instructions are as follows:

• Facebook's "down arrow" button is located in the top right corner.
• Select "Preferences"
• From the menu on the left, pick "Privacy."
• To hide older comments, select the option to do so on the right.
• Click the box labeled "Limit Previous Posts."
• To confirm, please click "Limit Old Posts" once more.

Change Who Can See a Previously Posted Update

Here's what you need to know about editing the settings of your iPhone so that you can make a single older post private:

• Navigate to the article
• Access the menu by selecting the "More" option in the upper right
• Pick "Privacy Settings" and make the necessary changes.
• Choose your level of anonymity

Using a browser yields the same results. To change the privacy settings for a post, simply visit the post, hover over the setting, and make your selection. You can restrict who sees your posts by selecting the "Friends except..." option whenever you create a new post.

Modify the Audience for Future Posts

You can modify the default audience for your future Facebook posts in the browser. You must make a new post on your iPhone for the edit to take effect. This only establishes a baseline; individual posts can still have their visibility modified via the usual method (using the dropdown when editing the post).

• Just hit the arrow button in Facebook's upper-right corner.
• Select "Preferences" from the menu.
• Navigate to the left-hand menu and pick "Privacy."
• To change who can see your future posts, click the "Edit" button. ”
• Pick the Ambience You Like Best

Make Use Of Facebook's Built-In Lists

Facebook also has a Close Friends list, as well as an Acquaintances list, in addition to the restricted list. You can manage the content of your News Feed by limiting it to only the updates from the people you add to these lists. You can choose to have your posts concealed from the people who are part of these groups.

Place friends whose updates you can't wait to read in your Close Friends list, and acquaintances whose updates you'd rather skip, in the Acquaintances list. To see everything a friend has posted, including those that didn't make it into your feed, visit their profile.

Make Your Own List

You'll find some pre-made lists on Facebook, such as "people you went to school with." If you find that none of Facebook's premade lists are quite right, you can always make your own. You can more precisely control who sees what by using a curated contact list.

• Access Facebook using a desktop or laptop.
• Select "Friend Lists" from the "Explore" menu on the left.
• Then, at the very top, select "Create List."
• You can start by naming your list and then adding people to it.

When you have multiple friend lists, you can control who sees your posts and who doesn't, and you can also tailor the content you receive. Select the list you're interested in under "Friend Lists" under "Explore," and you'll be taken to a News Feed with all of their most recent updates.

If you no longer wish to see a person's updates, you can unfollow them.

You can unfollow someone on Facebook if you no longer wish to see their posts in your feed but still want to keep in touch with them without actually unfriending them. Simply navigate to their profile on your iPhone, and tap the Friends icon to the right of their profile picture to add them as a friend. In the new window, select "Unfollow."

Visit their profile on your browser and click the "Follow" button. To stop following a user, go to his or her profile and click "Unfollow [Name]" at the very

You can control what stories appear in your news feed.

There are a number of ways you can modify your News Feed to better suit your needs. To access the menu, click the ellipses (...) next to "News Feed" on the left side of your browser. To adjust your news feed preferences on an iPhone, tap the menu button (three lines), then tap "Settings and Privacy," tap "Settings," and finally tap "News Feed Settings." You'll have a few different choices available to you. In particular, these three are helpful:

• When you go to the settings and select "Prioritize who to see first," you can go through your list of contacts and decide who you want to see first. (This is distinct from adding someone to your Close Friends list. )
• When you select "Unfollow people and groups to hide their posts," you'll be presented with the same selection of options. ”
• Reconnecting with friends you may have lost touch with or reevaluating your networking priorities makes use of the handy "Reconnect with people and groups you unfollowed" feature.

Additional Options for Secrecy

You can control how Facebook uses your personal information through a variety of other settings. The "Timeline and Tagging" section of your profile's settings and the "Privacy" section of your profile's settings will both The ability to regulate things like:

• People will be able to contact you more easily if they have your email address.
• The people who can send you friend requests
• Who can see who you're following and who you're connected to
• If others can add updates to your timeline and tag you in posts,
• If your content can be shared on the popular social media platform "Stories,"

It's possible to block someone so that they can't see your profile, read your posts, or contact you through other means such as Messenger if you so choose.

Efficient Methods for Reducing Your Facebook Friends List

Having hundreds or thousands of friends means spending hours sorting through them to unfriend, unfollow, or add them to the correct list, and you might still miss some. When you've finished checking off everyone on your staff to make sure they aren't receiving unwanted material, you can relax and take a more natural approach to the rest of your list. Make it a habit to look at your birthday announcements on Facebook every day, and then adjust your privacy settings for only those people. You will have given everyone on your list the most recent information after a year has passed.

Delete Friendships Carefully

Because you can't bulk unfriend people, you should think carefully about who you decide to cut ties with because, despite reducing your friend list, doing so may cause some people to feel rejected. You won't be able to send an unfriend request, but if they visit your profile they will see that you've removed them as a friend.

You can probably safely unfriend a stranger you've never met or talked to in person without any repercussions, but long-time friends and family members, even if communication has been minimal or nonexistent in recent years, may take offense. Unfollowing someone and moving them to your Acquaintances or Restricted list may be the more diplomatic and less dramatic option if you want to avoid alienating or hurting them.

In Conclusion

The more people you have in your Facebook network, the more vulnerable your privacy is, so it's best not to share anything there that you wouldn't want everyone to see. But since you want to use Facebook for self-expression, you should consider carefully which friends and acquaintances on which lists will see which posts. You'll be able to have private conversations with your closest friends and family members.

Do you have any tips for making the most of Facebook and expertly managing your connections? Please share your thoughts in the section below.

Credited main image by Vadym Nechyporenko / Shutterstock com