• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, November 10, 2014

In the weird world we have created with social media, many people seem to take it as their mission to accumulate as many online friends as possible — then complain because they’re, like, totes boring and annoying. So then they need a way to block content from these “friends,” but in a way that the “friends” don’t know about because that would be rude — because they still want to be “friends,” just in a way where they never see or hear from the “friend” ever again.

Thankfully, Facebook is more than willing to enable this absurd kabuki theater with a tool to unfollow tedious connections without unfriending them. And now that’s even easier thanks to some new features that show you who is posting the most content in your newsfeed, and allows you to unfollow them (or refollow them) more easily — or simply choose to see less from them without blocking them totally.  

The first feature shows you the people, pages, and groups that have appeared most frequently in your newsfeed recently, with additional tools to sort them by category to see only people, pages, or groups. The following button is prominently positioned so you can sweep them into the social dustbin with ease. Another list shows people you’ve already consigned to the dustbin, with follow buttons also prominently displayed in case you have a change of heart.  

In addition to unfollowing outright, you can also choose to see less from certain people, without blocking them entirely, by asking to hide particular stories; when you ask to hide a story you’ll also be asked if you want to see fewer posts from that person in your newsfeed going forward. In effect, you can now “turn down the volume” on your Facebook friends (it also offers you the option of unfollowing them completely).

Of course, all this applies just as much to brands as to people. So with the new “easy execute” interface in place, marketers should probably be prepared for diminished reach via newsfeeds — especially if they have been posting a bunch of tedious nonsense that nobody wanted to see.