More and more adults are using social media applications like Facebook but they may not be aware of the new features.  Facebook and other service are coming up with new features all the time, so it is pretty difficult to know everything, even the important things.  Most of the new features are small changes and therefore not really publicized.  However, some are significant improvements but in areas such as security which are not exciting enough for the service provider to spend their time advertising.  Also, announcements on security enhancements are double edge swords.  In other words, it's great that a security problem is now fixed but it's also admitting that the system was open to that vulnerability before the fix.

An example of an enhancement in Facebook is in the area of privacy.  With so many people on Facebook, your Facebook “Friends” are probably a combination of family, family friends, co-workers and people you know from other organizations (e.g. church, sports club, professional groups).  So would you want all your Facebook Friends to know where you are partying tonight?  How about your boss or the kids you coach in soccer knowing?  You probably only want your friends who are the same age as you to know.  However, you're thinking that when you put a status notice up on Facebook, that notice is going out to all your Friends.  So you think can only let everyone know what you're up to, or no one.

Well, you are now in luck!  Facebook knew that this was a problem and created something to solve that problem.  It's called "List" for your Friends.  You can now make different List for each group of Friends.  So you can have a Family List and a Co-Worker List, etc.  You can even have a Party List or Church List. 

To create a List you need to go to the Friend's List Page.  To get there, you click on the arrow next to the "Account" button on the top right hand side of your Facebook Home page after you have logged in. 

Select "Edit Friends" from the drop down box.  On the next page, look for "Lists" on the left most column.  Click on the word "Friends" in that column below "Lists". 

This should take you to a page listing all your Friends.  On the top is a "Create New List" button which you would use as expected (e.g. create a Family List). 

You can add more Friends to that list by finding the Friend you want to add in your Friends List Page and clicking on the arrow with the words “Add to List” if that person is not in any List yet or the arrow with the words “1 List”, “2 Lists”, etc.  Just click on the name of the List you would like to add a Friend to and it will now a check mark next to the List's name.  So that's all there is to managing Lists.  It sounds harder than it really is.  Once you get the hang of it, you will see it's nothing at all.

Now that you have Lists, you can use them.  When posting a new status on your Facebook Home Page, click on the lock icon next to the "Share" button.  This will bring up choices of "Everyone", "Friends of Friends", "Friends Only or "Custom".  Click on "Custom".  In the window that comes up, in the "Make this Visible to these people" box, choose "Specific People".  In the box below "Specific People", type the name of the List of people you want to be able to see this update.  You can add multiple lists.  Once you are done selecting the List(s) you want, click on "Save Setting".  You can also make this your default setting by clicking on the check box on the bottom left.  This will take you back to your status update and you can click on "Share".  Your status update will only be visible to those in the List(s) you selected.

This a powerful new feature which now gives you control over who will be able to see what you write on Facebook.  Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with family, friends and others.  And now you can let different groups of people know what you you are doing without broadcast it to the world.