Three Things You Should Never Do on Facebook

Facebook is an extremely useful tool for keeping in touch with friends and family and even networking with prospective employers.  However, there are some things that should not be shared.  Yes, we all know a few people who share WAY too much on Facebook, but that is not what I am talking about here.  Here are three things that you should never talk about on Facebook:

1) Post details of your vacation - Unless you want to announce that your home is open for burglars, don't announce to everyone that you are going on vacation next week.  Even if you make the post private, comments and likes can allow other people to see your post.

Furthermore, don't provide a update of your trip through daily photo albums.  These also announce that you are gone.  There is certainly no problem with posting these photos:  just wait until you are back before you post.

2) Complain about your job - In our current economy, taking to Facebook to complain about your boss, company, co-workers, etc. is a quick way to find yourself filing for unemployment.  Even if you don't end up losing your job, these types of posts will not win you any friends in the office.

3) Provide your personal information - Part of the way that people accessed the photos in the recent celebrity photo hack was through answering security questions that were available online.  So much of the information that can be used to answer these questions can be found on our Facebook pages.  The street on which you grew up, the name of your first pet, and your mother's maiden name are all common security questions, so don't write about them on Facebook.

Also, it is amazing what can be accomplished if someone just knows your name and complete birth date.  Fortunately, Facebook allows you to block your birth year from being shown on your profile.  Regardless of how you feel about your current age, keep your birth year off of your profile.

Stop Auto-Play on Facebook

A few months ago, Facebook began enabling auto-play of videos as a default for all users.  Then, Facebook announced that it would begin allowing video ads in our news feeds.  Coincidence?

We can't do much about the advertising in our newsfeed.  However, we can stop videos from playing automatically.  Like most new Facebook features, this one can be disabled by going into settings.  From the newsfeed, click on the arrow in the upper-right and select Settings.  On the left hand side, select Videos, and then change the "Auto-Play Videos" option to Off.

Unfortunately, you're not done yet unless you only use Facebook from its web site.  Right there between the "Auto-Play Videos" title and the button where you select Off is a message stating that this setting only applies to the Facebook site.  If you use a mobile app, you need to go through the process in the app.  In the Android app, tap the home key, select Settings, and then change "Video Auto-Play" to off.  In the iOS app, go to the Settings app, select Facebook and then Settings, and then change Auto-Play to off.

See Your Public Facebook Profile

Sometimes it feels like we are in a constant battle with the large internet companies over the privacy of our data.  Just when we think we have our privacy settings the way we want them, they turn around and make more changes.  Do you really know what is public or private on social media?  For example, a few months ago, I wanted to make one status update public, and for the next month, everything I posted on Facebook was made public.  Fortunately, I did eventually realize the issue and changed the privacy settings.

On Facebook, there is one very useful feature that you can use to see what the public can see.  Log into Facebook and go to your profile page (not the news feed).  Then, in the bottom right corner of your cover photo, you should see a "..." box next to the "View Activity Log" button.  Select "View As" on the menu, and your page will show you what everyone can see when they look at your Facebook profile.

You are even able to see what a specific friend is able to see.  Perhaps you made some status updates only visible to certain friends.  Choose a friend who is (or is not) on the list, and make sure your privacy settings worked properly.

A New Feature Is Coming to Facebook

I sometimes long for Facebook's early days.  We had a wall where people could only write messages (no pictures, videos, links, and no replies, either), a profile picture (but no other photos), some basic information about yourself, the ability to send and receive private messages among your friends, and of course, the "poke" button!  There may be a few features I am forgetting, but those were the major ones.

However, Facebook has continually added new features and modified old ones.  Yesterday, Facebook's news page announced a new feature that will be coming in the next few days, called "Save on Facebook".

According to their post, Save on Facebook will allow you to save "items like links, places, movies, TV, and music."  Unless you also share them, only you will be able to see the items you have saves.  Save on Facebook will allow you to view your saved items on any device that can access Facebook, meaning you can save an item on your computer and later view it on your phone.

It will also add reminders about your saved items into your News Feed.  No information is provided regarding your ability to control these reminders.

While I will hold final judgment on this feature until it is publicly released, I think this will prove to be a useful feature.  I have seen many people say to share something you won't need right away (like a recipe) so that it will be on your profile for you to view later.  However, the problem is that unless you remember when you shared it, you will have to scroll through all your posts to find what you shared.  Now, you have a way to store and organize all those items for quick retrieval.