How to unfriend, unfollow or see less of someone on Facebook

Facebook encourages you to connect to as many friends as possible, but it can be tiring wading through a newsfeed stuffed with irritating posts from overactive friends. 

Whether it’s 'funny' videos of cats and dogs, inspirational posters, baby photos, views on politics and religion or simply where they’ve eaten dinner, it’s a bore when you’re not interested.

So what can you do?

You could simply unfriend the guilty party. People aren’t notified when you unfriend them, but as you’re removed as a friend from their friends list too, some close friends and family may notice. 

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If you’re worried about offending someone, there are ways other than having to unfriend on Facebook to stop their posts from showing up on your newsfeed.

Option 1: Delete someone from your Facebook friends list - aka 'unfriending'

Removing someone from your friends list - or unfriending them, the new terminology that has firmly taken root - means you’ll no longer receive their posts; nor will they receive yours. 

How to unfriend on Facebook

To remove someone from your friends list, go to that person’s profile page and hover over the 'Friends' button at the top of their profile and then select 'Unfriend'. 

They’ll instantly be removed from your friends list - without having a notification to alert them to the fact.

However, bear in mind that if they are a good friend in real life and they notice you have unfriended them on Facebook - perhaps when trying to write you a message, or tag you in a photo - you  might end up having to have an awkward discussion about why you unfriended them - a conversation no grown up should ever have to have! But happily, there are other alternatives that will keep everyone happy, and you sane...

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Option 2: Unfollow rather than unfriend a Facebook friend

If you don’t want to potentially cause offence or a rift with a good friend whose only crime is sharing too many photos of their breakfast, you may not want to go as far as to unfriend them on Facebook, but you'll be relieved to know you can set your Facebook newsfeed not to show their posts. 

Simply go to one of their posts and click the down arrow in the top right hand corner. From the menu that appears, select 'Unfollow'; you'll no longer have to see status updates from that particular friend but they'll never know - unless you accidentally let on that you've not seen any of the things they've shared on Facebook...

Getting unwanted attention on social media? Read our guide to dealing with trolls.

Option 3: See fewer annoying Facebook posts

Rather than unfollow a Facebook friend entirely, you can choose to see less from them. 

Click on the small arrow in the upper-right corner of their post and then select 'Hide post'. 

This will hide that specific post from your news feed but a new option will also appear, allowing you to 'See less' from that particular person’s name. Clicking this will hide a handful of posts from that friend, but not all of them. 

Facebook uses an algorithm to decide which posts to hide and which to show based on a number of factors including how many comments, likes and shares a post has and how you’ve interacted with similar posts in the past. 

Best of all, your friend won’t know you’ve chosen not to see their posts, and because you will still see the odd one, you can still interact with the occasional like or comment to stop them suspecting you've hidden their posts from view.

Find out more on changing your Facebook newsfeed

Option 4: See Facebook posts from people you like first

You can change your newsfeed preferences so Facebook will show only posts from selected friends first. 

To do this, click the down arrow in the top-right corner of any Facebook page and select 'News Feed Preferences'. Click 'Prioritise who to see first' and then select a person or Page. 

You can choose up to 30 people or Pages to see first – with no ranking given to your selection – and they won’t know that you’ve selected them. 

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Next article: Be careful what you 'like' on Facebook, as the scammers are lurking  >>>