Dumb Stuff We Do on Facebook and How to Knock it Off

I really like Facebook, and it's where a lot of us spend the majority of our time when we're on line. It's so useful, but it can be a source of annoyance and what we do on the site can even be really embarrassing or even get us in trouble and we don't even know that we're making dumb decisions. Fortunately, I ran across this list and together, we can get our Facebook under control.

Here are just a few things we may be doing wrong:

You Don't Audit Your Apps - Every time you play a game, read and article, answer a survey or watch a video, you may have to approve an app. Those apps can be spammy and buggy and have a lot of access to your personal data and you don't even know it or what they're doing with it. To audit your apps, just go to your app settings page (it's under Apps & Games on the left hand side of the news feed) and you'll see the list of apps you're using. Go through the list and just click the "X" next to the app to delete it. Changes are saved as you go and once you're done, mark something down on your appointment calendar so you can take five minutes next month to do it again.

You Don't Manage Your Privacy Settings - A lot of potential employers are asking for social media passwords or taking to Google to look up your social media pages and if you have everything all hanging out on your page, it could sway their decision to another candidate. Fortunately, the privacy settings aren't difficult to switch. In the upper right hand corner should be your name, the word "home" and then an upside down triangle. Click that and you'll see a drop down menu. One of the choices will be "Privacy Settings" and you can customize from there. Lock down everything you can and disable public search.

You Friend Everyone - Facebook started as a private website for Harvard students only and slowly started opening up to other students at other schools and eventually opened up to the whole world. The site was created so you could interact with people who were actually your friends. Now anyone can send anyone a friend request to anyone and we end up with a junked up news feed from people we don't even know. So, send a message to your friends that says you're cleaning house and keep track of those who say they want to stay. You can also look at your news feed and find out who you interact with the most and figure out who you want to keep around.

You Spend All Your Time on Facebook - How much time do you spend on Facebook? It can be a fun distraction, but when it starts messing with your relationships and ability to actually talk to people, it's time to cool it. Even one visit can derail your productivity for the day. You may want to quit, but the thought of that makes you sweat and get the jitters, but good news! You can quit without quitting. All you have to do is just start locking down some of the features and getting rid of the games. If that's too much, you can start tracking your screen time and see when you use the site the most. Then wean yourself off of it.

Don't forget, use HTTPS, don't overshare, secure your password, and watch for scams.