How to Be a Social Media Power User
By Distributel
Facebook has dozens of settings that help customize and improve your experience. Here are some that you can tinker with right now.
Make a Reading List
If you see links in your friends’ posts or promoted links that you’d like to read later, you can save them. Click the ellipsis button on the link you want to save, and the top option in the dropdown menu will be Save Post. Select this.
Your saved menu appears on the left side of your Facebook timeline, along with things like Messenger, Events, and Games. You may have to click Show More to see it.
Check All Your Logins
Are you logged in from multiple places? You can check by going to Settings, then Security and Login. Here, you’ll see a list of all the places you’re logged into Facebook, including computers, phones, and even other apps such as Messenger. You can log out over everything by selecting Log Out of All Sessions.
Improve Your Security
Don’t want to get hacked, either by random mean people who will change all your settings and try to extort money or by sneaky family members who will take the opportunity to make sure you like every boy-band meme page they can find? You have a few options.
First, enable two-factor authentication. Go to Settings, then Security and Login. Under Two-Factor Authentication, select Enable and then provide a phone number or other secondary means for logging in.
For extra security, you can also make Facebook send you notifications when they see logins they can’t identify. For example, they can text or email you if they see you logging in from a computer or location that is unfamiliar. You can enable this in the same place as two-factor authentication.
You can also select trusted contacts to help you log back in if you’re locked out. Again, this is in Settings and then Security and Login. Basically, you can choose three to five people from your contacts list who can vouch for you and help you if you get locked out of your account.
Download a Copy
Want a copy of every single thing you’ve ever posted on Facebook? All the links, conversations, pictures, and more? Go to Settings, then Your Facebook Information, then you can select Download Your Information. Warning: there will be a surprising amount.
Name a Legacy Contact
It’s not pleasant to think about, but you should decide what you want to happen to your Facebook page when you are no longer able to take care of it. Do you want it to remain a memorial page? Be deleted? Stick around but get suitably cleaned up? All you need to do is name a legacy contact, which is a person who will oversee your page after you’re gone.
To do this, go to Settings, then General, then Memorialization Settings. Here, you can select a person to be your legacy contact. Be sure to choose someone you trust.
Turn Off Autoplay Videos
Whether you think autoplay videos are annoying or you just don’t like what they do to your bandwidth, Facebook lets you disable them. Go to Settings, then Videos. Here, you can set autoplay to off. You can also set a default volume, enable captions by default, and even select a default video quality: pick SD if you don’t have unlimited internet or HD if you do.