Thanks to my reader who asked me the question after reading my blog from 10/09.   Things happen so fast on Facebook. It’s hard to tell if the changes (that mess you up because just when you get used to doing a task one way, they change how you do it) are for the better or not. Obviously, they make sense to some designer at Facebook.

If you want to hide a certain APPLICATION or TYPE of posting –like to NOT see Farmville or Mafia Wars–you can hover your mouse to the right of that post and you will see a “HIDE” button. When you click on that button it will give you the option to hide that application or to hide that friend’s posts altogether. Then you won’t be bothered with lots of those “egg buddy” or “mafia wars” or “farmville” (or whatever you don’t care about) postings.

If you want to see only certain friend’s postings at times…(like just work friends or just close friends), make a Friend list. Go to FRIENDS. You’ll see at the top of the list CREATE A LIST. Click on it to create a list, give it a name, and click on the people you want to add to the list.  Click on CREATE LIST at bottom to complete.

To change what list is associated with a friend (and they can be part of more than one list), Go to that list and click on “EDIT LIST.” (Illustration on Left above.) The people included in that list will be highlighted.(Illustration on the right above.)  Click on new people that you want to add  to the list. To remove people from the list, click on highlighted people. Click SAVE.

Then go back to your Wall. You will see the Friends list(s) you’ve created under FRIENDS on the left. Clicking on a list will filter the wall to only show the postings of the friends from that list.  This lets you check statuses and posts from your good friends OR from work friends or however you choose to filter your friends, making it easier to focus on that group.  (Note: there is also an item to click on to see only status updates).