By Marianne Lincoln

Facebook, being popular with many people these days, poses problems with personal privacy. Many times I have looked up the friend of a friend and seen all their posts, even when I an not “friended” to them. This is for those folks who haven’t checked their privacy settings.

This is a simple trick, an observation you need to make when you post to Facebook. There is a drop down box next to the box that says POST. If you open it before you post, you can choose who sees your post. It will say Public, Friends, Friends except aquaintances, Only Me, Custom, Close Friends and See all lists (which lists specific groups that can see that post).

If you forget to choose who sees your post before you hit POST, you can still go to the icon of a globe or people next to the time stamp of your post and change it from Public to Friends or whatever else you prefer.

If you are a parent, you should make sure your kids are posting privately for their safety. Your kids over 13 that is. There are age restrictions on Facebook that they are hopefully adhering to.

There are Facebook rumors that circulate all the time, make sure you check them out on Snopes or another rumor fact checking site. One rumor says to hover over a friend’s name on your home page, choose the Friends drop down and change the settings. That will actually stop you from seeing your friend’s posts, not change their posts to private.

It is always wise to read up on Facebook, use the help utility and look under that little blue gear on the top right hand side of the page, up there on the dark blue bar. Check your Account Settings and Privacy Settings there every so often. Make sure you are getting the best performance from your Facebook settings that you can get.

Socializing is healthy when its done well. Good luck and happy chatting!