After we lost our daughter I felt so numb. I was desperate to distract my self and to relieve some of the pain. So I went to my old habit of distraction, Social media. What a mistake.
Facebook knew I was pregnant. It was showing me ALL of my friends baby posts because I had loved looking at them for months, getting excited for my own little one. Now those posts were a slap in the face. Showing me what I no longer had.
If that wasn't bad enough the Facebook Ads for baby stuff were relentless. Again things I liked looking at before excitement just made me cry now. My distraction was now causing even more pain. I know several people who just stay off social media after something like this and I think that is actually best. However it's not always practical. For me it wasn't anyway. Since I do website designer and social media setup for my clients, being on Facebook is part of my job I couldn't avoid it. That and my husband and I travel for his job and with Facebook it was easier to keep up with friends and family back home. I thought I would offer some tips for those of you who still want to use social media but would like to not be ambushed at every other post.
1. Hide your Friends Content 2. Choose what Ads you see Here is a short video where I walk you through each.
How to hide your friends content. The first week will take a bit to weed out your friends. Now by weed out I don't mean delete, I mean you can if you want. However what I did is every time I saw a baby post I would:
Hit the 3 dots in the top right corner of the post and and hit “snooze (name) for 30 days”
Then fb would hide them from me. I still love those people but I should couldn't look at them with their babies.
Also if I knew of someone who was pregnant I would just be proactive and go to their profile and snooze them. In 30 days If I still didn't want to see their stuff I would snooze them again. Repeat until you are In a better place and ready to see their content.
The other option is if you don't want to have to deal with it every 30 days go to their profile hit the 3 dots under their profile and hit “unfollow”
How to change the ads Facebook is targeting you with.
Click your profile Icon in top right
Click Settings and Privacy
Click Privacy Center
Scroll down until you see the Ads section
Click Get started
Click Review Ad Preferences
Click Facebook & Messenger
The default page will show you the current advertisers you have seen recently. you can choose to hide any of them. You can also see which advertisers you have hidden
On the Left there is a menu where you can see Ad Topics and choose what you would like to see less of that way. I twill take a day or so but it will clear up so much of your Facebook. So those are my recommendations for Facebook. Snooze or unfollow friends and go to your ad preferences and hide advertisers and baby topics. Or better yet just take a break from Social media if you are able. I hope this helps, Hang in there!