Are you tired of seeing someone you barely know, but who is a Facebook friend (colleague, co-worker or associate), trying to convince you that either Sarah Palin or Barack Obama is the devil through clever Facebook posts?

Do you tire of seeing distant acquaintances post photos of their puppies or babies ad nauseum?

Are you sick of seeing that person, whom you were obligated to connect with on Facebook, trying to sell you something, brag about their company, or talk shop in an industry that is of no interest to you?

Then introduce these folks to the concept of Lists.

I know I’m late to this party, but experience tells me I’m not the last one to it.

For those who don’t know, Facebook allows you to put all of your FB friends in lists. You might have one for friends, another for family, another for co-workers, yet another for obligatory-friend-requests-that-I-accepted-but-now-regret.

What this allows you to do is pick and choose (wisely) who gets to see your status updates, posts, photos, and so on. That way, you’re not tempting fate by posting weekend exploits for the eyes of your co-workers or clients, nor are you boring your drinking buds with posts about work and high finance.

To do this, follow these simple instructions:

1.) Categorize your friends.

From your Home page, click on Friends. In the main content area, you will find the option to Create a List. Be a dear, and click it.

From there, you will be able to add a new list, give it a name (such as “Friend-Friends” or “Work Nerds”), and check off the people you want to assign to that list. Make sure you have darn-near everyone in one category or another. This will come in handy soon…

2.) Send your posts judiciously.

As you’re preparing a post that you think not EVERYONE in your Facebook network should be privy to, notice the little lock icon in the lower-right-hand corner. Be a dear, and click the arrow next to it.

When you click the arrow, a menu will pop up, allowing you to either pick which individuals or groups of people (Lists that you created in step 1) you WANT to share the post with, OR the individual or lists you DO NOT WANT to share the post with.

3.) Check Privacy Settings.

You can even make certain privilege groups (like I did above, with Friends and Acquaintances) your default setting, whereas now it is likely that your default is “Everyone” gets to see everything. To change this and other settings that allow certain people to see certain things, look under Account in the top-right corner of any Facebook page and click on Privacy Settings.

4.) Check you work.

This only works if you set up your lists correctly. Before you start employing this practice, make sure you didn’t put your boss in your “Friends Who Come to My Keggers” list, and make sure your 10-year-old niece isn’t on your “Dirty Joke Lovers” list.

Now, please. Embrace this concept. You will annoy far fewer people who care very little about your political tirades; you will be in far less danger of putting your professional reputation at risk; and you will be doing your part to clean up the clutter in your “true” friends News Feeds.