The deluge of political rants, memes, and arguments in your Facebook
feed is hardly ending—if anything, it’s getting louder. Whether you
participate in these posts, just seeing them is
proven to be wearing and stressful, and can ultimately be a drain on your productivity.
You don’t necessarily have to swear off social media completely to get
relief, nor do you have to start a campaign of “unfriending” folks with
offending opinions. There are several free browser add-ons that will
help you purge your feed of politics—or at least keep it out of sight
long enough to get your work done. Here are a few of the best.
Remove All Politics From Facebook
You’ve likely dreamed of a solution that would remove only
politics-related posts from your feed, while leaving the funny pet
videos and other more enjoyable content. That’s exactly what this Chrome
add-on boldly promises to do.
Remove all politics from facebook installs a simple switch in your browser. If you want to hear the
unfiltered voice of the American people—at least the ones in your
Facebook feed—flick the switch to “on.” If you don’t, toggle it to
“off.” The developer doesn’t say how the add-on identifies which posts
are political and which aren’t, but my best guess based on usage is that
it filters according to keywords and names. There’s no way to customize
the filter, but if you want a set-it-and-forget-it solution, this one
works. (Chrome)
Social Fixer
Like Remove All Politics From Facebook,
Social Fixer also blocks political posts from your feed, but it gives you a little more latitude in how they’re filtered.
Social Fixer adds a wrench icon to Facebook’s toolbar. To customize your feed, click it, select
Social Fixer Options and scroll down to
Filters. If you just want to impose a sweeping moratorium on all political posts, enable
Election/Politics 2016 from the list of predefined filters. This will hide posts about anything related to the recent presidential election.
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Social Fixer uses both predefined and custom filters to block political posts—and a whole lot else. |
If you only want to filter posts about a certain political party, issue, or person, click
Create a New Filter. Here you can set your own conditions for what to hide using keywords.
Social Fixer can actually filter a variety of posts, including sponsored
ads and spoilers, and help you customize your Facebook experience in a
number of other ways, so it’s worth keeping around after the political
climate calms down. (It’s going to calm down, right?) (Chrome, Firefox,
Opera, Edge, and Safari)
News Feed Eradicator for Facebook (Chrome)
Filters will go a long way toward purging your feed of political
articles and their ensuing flame wars. But they can’t block snarky
memes, many posters’ preferred way of voicing their opinions. To truly
ensure you aren’t distracted by political posts in your feed is to block
it altogether.
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News Feed Eradicator for Facebook blocks access to your feed and live
ticker only, while still letting you get to individual profiles | . | |
The news feed eradicator from facebook removes your news feed and live ticker altogether. But unlike similar
add-ons, it replaces them with an inspirational quote to keep you
motivated and productive. You can even add your own. (Chrome)
LeechBlock
If all else fails, there’s always, if you’ll pardon the expression, the
nuclear option: blocking your access to Facebook completely.
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Add Facebook and other politically charged sites to Leech Block and designate times to restrict access. | |
Leechblock bars the door to any site you tell it to. You can add up to six
domains—so feel free to toss Twitter, major news sites, and any other
political forum into the mix as well—and block them for specific time
periods you define—during work hours, for example. By keeping a lid on
your feed only when you need to get things done, you’ll reduce your
exposure to potentially productivity-sucking posts when it matters most.