Kim Gentes

Why We Love/Hate Facebook

Let's be honest. We all love Facebook. We all hate Facebook.  What's not to love about one place where all your various friends, family, acquaintances, work associates and relatives that live in far-away locations can all be within 15 seconds of your mouse clicks.  What's not to hate about a data collection website that knows literally more about you and your behavior than just about anyone else (except maybe Google), including yourself.

But the one thing that finds the most heated angst from users is the pervasive and intrusive nature of the applications that are built into Facebook by third party developers (FB apps).  Facebook apps have a particular kind of charm and power that make them exceedingly viral, and spread quickly when they are designed to catch the weary eye of users who have already spent 4 hours longer on Facebook than they should have in one day.  If you think Facebook apps are all fun and you love them, you might consider this well-written (though a bit dated) article that is 99% dead-on regarding the problem with FB apps:

Exclusive: The next Facebook privacy scandal

http://www.cnet.com/8301-13739_1-9854409-46.html

OK, after taking a look at that, do you still want to keep those apps on your page?  To be honest, the thing I hate most is NOT the privacy invasion (although I despise that, it is part of using the internet). The more evil thing in my mind is the constant annoyance of the APP posts to my wall- people throwing pillows, kisses and gifts that demand I respond back (which means I have to give them all my info to do so- since all APPs require it).  That alone makes me wish I could band apps from my page forever. Well, it turns out you can. Almost.  Here is what you can do.

Blocking FaceBook Apps

First, each Facebook app has its own set of protocols and settings against those protocols. You can't ban all APPs in one fell swoop (Facebook knew that would be a deathknell of beautiful responsibility to its 3rd party apps-- far too user centric a move!).  However, each time an APP posts something to your wall, you do have the ability to block it from ever doing that again.

Here is how to block an unwanted app:

STEP 1. When an APP makes a post to your wall or newsfeed, select the small grey link (how sly of them to make it small and greyed out) that links to the app itself, as you can see from the Mafia Wars post to my newsfeed below.

STEP 2. Once you have arrived at the app's main page, notice and select the "Block Application" link on the left margin. 

STEP 3. Of course, Mafia Wars wants to be certain you really don't love their excessive spam and e-vomit all over your screen, so they ask you for the obligatory confirmation.

STEP 4. Now you have blocked the app. You will note that POSTS from the app are now also gone from your newsfeed. No future posts will appear in your newsfeed either.  

STEP 5. Repeat.  Each time a new app appears on your wall or newsfeed in Facebook you can repeat this process to block that app.  Though there are hundreds of apps being used out there, only a few are used extensively, so you will find it takes just a few days and you will have encountered 99% of the apps that you will want to ban from your pages.  Yahh! for blocking! Yahh!!

You are free! Free at last!  Thank God! Free at last!

Doing my part to set the Facebook captives free,

Kim Gentes