Who in my company likes to ski? Which of my friends like road trips? These are the types of searches available to you in Facebook’s new Graph Search. Basically, Graph search allows you to search all the public info that people have shared with Facebook.
The problem is that includes everything you’ve “liked” ever. Likes are always public pieces of information, but until now they have been buried in a list on your profile page in microscopic font size. Because of that fact, no one I know has ever gone through and managed this list.
Imagine, you weren’t the most perfect person in college (a couple years ago) and you liked a bunch of stuff like getting high, etc. Now one of your kids searches for: “which of my friends likes getting high?” He shows it to mom who prints it off and leaves it in your pastor’s box. Boom.
The moral of the story is: manage your likes. To do this, log into facebook, click on your name, and then click likes on the main bar next to photos and friends. Make sure to click “more” wherever it is shown and especially make sure to click show other pages. If you need to remove one, simply click on it and then click unlike on the page it takes you to.
Graph search is being rolled out gradually which means that most people don’t have it yet, but don’t use that as an excuse. GO MANAGE YOUR LIKES!
Jeremy Steele has been working in youth ministry for the past 16 years and now serves as the Next Generation Minister at Christ United Methodist Church in Mobile, AL. He writes for Group Magazine, RETHINK Church and various publications and organizations. You can find a link to all the places he contributes on his website at JeremyWords.com.