Carolyn Abram - Facebook For Dummies

Are you too old for Facebook? Most emphatically, no. Although how people use the site can be different at different ages, Facebook’s utility and nature aren’t limited to being useful to only young people.

More and more people in older age demographics are signing up for Facebook every day to keep in touch with friends and family members, share photos, create events, and connect with local organizations. Almost everything we discuss in this book is non-age-specific. Everyone — young or old, in college, working, or retired — has networks of friends and people with whom they interact daily. Facebook tries to map these real-world connections to make it easier for people to share information with their friends. Generally, you should feel confident that you and your friends can connect and use Facebook in a meaningful way.

More than two billion people are using Facebook, and that number isn’t made up of “a bunch of kids.” Rather, it’s a bunch of people from every age group, every country, and every walk of life.

As a new user logging into Facebook, Facebook overwhelmingly seems to want you to do one thing — add more friends. You may be seeing the updates of friends in your News Feed, but you are almost certainly seeing previews of people you may know with big buttons prompting you to Add Friend. You may see these previews in your News Feed and even on your timeline.

Facebook finds people to recommend as friends based largely on the people you're already friends with. Each time you see a Person You May Know suggestion, you can choose to ignore the suggestion by clicking the tiny X in the upper-right corner or clicking the Add Friend button.

In general, especially when you're just starting out, we lean towards suggesting that you add everyone you know and care about as a friend. Family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, teammates, classmates — add ’em all. Adding more friends will make your News Feed more interesting, and Facebook will learn over time whom, exactly, you find most interesting.

On Facebook, friendships are reciprocal . You don’t officially become Facebook friends with someone until he or she has approved your friend request.

On the flip side, we do not recommend adding people you don’t like as friends. Yes, we mean that one person from your last job who was always super nice to you but secretly drove you insane. Or that second cousin twice removed who always asks you inappropriate questions about your love life. Don’t feel obligated to click Add Friend simply because you know someone.

Categories of people you may not want to add as friends are teachers, doctors, students, and other people you know and like but would like to maintain a more professional relationship with. Facebook is often a place where people are casual, let their (virtual) hair down, and don’t censor. It can be unsettling or even inappropriate to see your therapist venting about her patients or for your boss to see photos of you relaxing at the beach when you claimed you were home sick.

Chapter 8provides much more information about the nuances of friendship and how to know whom to add.

Getting your timeline set up is not a requirement for using Facebook. In fact, your timeline is something that gets built up over time (and doing so is covered in Chapter 5), so we won’t give you such a Herculean task right away.

However, a few basic pieces of information will help you find your friends on Facebook, as well as help your friends identify you when you send them a friend request. This information consists of your current workplace, current city, any schools you’ve attended, and your hometown. Especially if you have a common name, this information can really help someone who is regarding a friend request figure out if you are in fact Jane Smith from Portland (whom the person definitely wants to be friends with) or Jane Smith from Seattle (not so much).

To add this basic profile information, follow these steps:

1 From your Home page, click your name on the left sidebar.This takes you to your profile.

2 Click the About tab.It is located below your name. Clicking it takes you to the About section of your profile, which is likely empty at this time.

3 Click Add a Workplace, Add a High School, or Add a College.Clicking one of these options opens an interface for typing the name of your workplace, high school, or college, respectively.

4 Start typing the name of your workplace or school.Facebook autocompletes , or attempts to guess at what you’re typing as you type. So, for example, if you start typing mic, Facebook will display a list of possible company matches — Microsoft, Michelin, Michael Kors, and so on.

5 Select your workplace or school when you see it appear on the autocomplete list.If your workplace doesn’t appear in the list, simply finish typing its name and press Enter.

6 (Optional) Add more details about your work or school.You can add information such as your specific job title, major, or graduation year.

7 Click Save.The blue Save button is at the bottom of the section you're editing.

To the left of the Save button, a small globe icon and the word Public lets you know that after you save this information, it will be publicly available. Anyone can see it. However, clicking Public opens a drop-down menu from which you can choose a smaller audience, such as all your Facebook friends or specific Facebook friends. We talk more about the privacy menu and what each option means in Chapter 6.

To add your hometown and current city from the About section of your profile, click Places Lived on the left side of the page (below Work and Education). You can then click to add your current city and hometown the same way you added your work and education information. You can also edit this information from the Overview section.

Chapter 3

IN THIS CHAPTER

Navigating Facebook

Looking around the Home page

Using Search

Finding less frequently used links

One of the best things about Facebook is the number of options available. You can look at photos, chat with friends, message friends, read updates from friends … the list goes on and on. What does get a little confusing is that there’s no one way to do anything on Facebook. Depending on the page you’re on, you’ll see slightly different things. And depending on who your friends are, you’ll see slightly different things. Using Facebook can’t exactly be broken down into ten easy steps.

However, you can learn to recognize the elements that are more constant. Starting from when you log in, you will always start on your Home page, which is where you’ll find one of Facebook’s most defining features, News Feed. Although your News Feed is always different (more on that later) the Home page has a few constants that are detailed in this chapter. If you ever find yourself lost on Facebook (it happens; trust us), click the Home icon or the Facebook logo (in the top bar of any page) to go to the Home page, where you’ll be able to reorient yourself.