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Hiding your online status on Facebook is a simple matter. While many people enjoy being accessible to their friends for a brief chat from time to time, many are also distracted or disturbed by pop-up windows with a perky "Hi, there! You'll never guess what happened today!" from friends who are in the mood for a lengthy catch-up chat. Or "chit-chat," if you prefer. They have no way of knowing if you're busy when they message you.

At those times, you have the option to communicate with the person quickly, and then make some excuse as to why you need to sign off. This can be awkward, and can come across as rude to the friend who really wanted to talk. But if you are playing any of the competitive games, posting news items, transferring your written articles to the site, uploading and posting pictures (which can take some degree of concentration,) or using Facebook for any number of other reasons, a long chat just then is not what you want or need. There are many times when the chat feature is more of a nuisance than it is a welcome feature.

You can avoid interruptions of this sort when you want or need to, and it is simple. Before disabling chat, you may want to check one last time to see who is online, in case there is someone you really need to speak with before you disappear. If not, you can just click on Options and "Go Offline." This feature is in the menu right with the friends online list. What this does is make you unavailable to your Facebook friends while you go about your business undisturbed. When you click on it again (lower left-hand corner of the screen,) you will be available once again to list of friends who are online.

There is some problem with this. If you're "leveling up" in a game or you're winning points or doing anything that gets you recognition online and you don't click on "skip," your new level, award, or recognition of any sort will appear on your page and on the pages of your friends, alerting them that you are, at that time, actually online. This can be embarrassing if you told someone you absolutely could not chat because you had to go to an appointment, you absolutely had to get some sleep, or you made some other excuse that sounded urgent and would keep you offline. Now you've been caught in a fib! Relationships can be damaged in the process of hiding out on Facebook if you are not careful.

Although it is easy to hide your online status on Facebook and sometimes necessary to do so, it's best to be truthful about needing some time to yourself to catch up on your applications. Be courteous but honest, so that nobody's feelings will be hurt. Remember, there are real people behind those avatars with the cute-sounding names!

Learn more about this author, G. Allendorfer Anderson, PhD.
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