How to Use Facebook’s Settings to Have More-Productive Conversations

The past year has served as a wake-up call for many Facebook users. Between the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Mark Zuckerberg’s congressional testimony and the advent of Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we have fresh insight into how much Facebook knows about us. While Facebook’s algorithm uses our data to show us content and ads that it thinks is more likely to be of interest to us, it is also the reason that some Facebook threads unfold as civil, respectful (but perhaps insufficiently representative) conversations among like-minded souls, while others turn into all-out brawls that can be both personally distressing and professionally problematic. Facebook’s lists and privacy settings offer a way to take control of your experience and make Facebook’s News Feed more useful and less aggravating for you personally.