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Facebook finally has a feature that I can get behind.  It is a snooze button that lets you temporarily unfollow friends, Pages or groups for 24 hours, 7 days or even 30 days.  Yes, please!  One of the reasons that I decided to leave Facebook, had a lot to do with what people were posting.  Yes, I could have unfriended them, and maybe that’s what I should have done.  But instead of being rude to just one person, I decided to not use the website and instead, live my life.  But now with this ability to snooze notifications, maybe I would consider re-joining?

The idea behind the snooze button is so that you don’t have to permanently unfollow, unlike or unfriend things or people on Facebook, while still giving them control over what they see.  Facebook benefits from you having a lot of friends or groups.  Which is likely attributed to ad targeting, so this feature only makes sense.  Facebook, would not like me!  What does this mean exactly?  Well, instead of deleting someone from your “life” when you’re annoyed with them, you can solve the problem without severing that connection.

I should clarify – Facebook is still testing the Snooze feature.  Right now they’re giving people control over their News Feed so they can stay connected with the stories that they find the most relevant.  How does this work exactly?  Tap the drop down arrow in the top right corner of someone’s post.  Instead of just an unfollow option, you will also see “Unfollow or Snooze”.  Tap that, and then choose whether you want to snooze someone for the day, a month or permanently unfollow them.

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Facebook has been working on this since 2012.  Well, maybe not this.  But they’ve been trying to come up with a way to let you control the News Feed without it being confusing.  I always say that people want choice and the ability to control those choices.  Which makes this kind of perfect, in my opinion.  With Snooze, you can decrease the noise from that chatty person, group or Page in a way that’s obvious and intuitive.

If you can’t tell, I really like this feature.  I’m all about having choice.  Part of the reason, as I mentioned, that I left Facebook was all of these annoying posts.  I recognize that this has more to do with me, than those other people, but it doesn’t make it less annoying.  This sounds selfish and kind of petty, but I’m going to say it anyway.  Let’s say I wake up super grumpy (which is kind of normal) and I decide to check out Facebook.  Maybe this is a way to make myself feel better?  Nope.  What is the first news story I see?  A friend who is getting married, or having a baby.  Yes, I’m incredibly happy for them, but my mind automatically goes to – why am  I not married?  Why am I not pregnant?

Ironically, I ask these things not because I necessarily want either one of those.  But seeing other people hitting those milestones makes me think I’m doing something wrong with my life, and therefore makes me feel badly about myself.  This way, I can actually keep in touch with some of my good friends, and be able to celebrate those events with them.  That honestly makes me happy.  A few of my friends have had babies this year, and one of my friends is getting married.  And I’m so happy to share pictures via text message and to be able to go and see the babies when they’re born.  Rather than living vicariously through Facebook.  Sorry friends, this hasn’t made me want to return to the social networking site.

By Staff Writer

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