Technology and design in plain language.

I overheard my wife chatting about Facebook with a friend the other day, and she said something that might be a rather common sentiment for many Facebook users these days:

"I loved that picture, but I didn't click Like because I knew I'd get spammed with everyone else's comments."

If you're unfamiliar with Facebook friend spam, it works something like this: Your friend posts a photo of her new baby online. You love it and want to let her know, so you click Like or you drop them a little note in the comments for that photo. Now you've just subscribed yourself to a short-term email firestorm and suddenly your inbox lights up with notifications about the 150 other people who clicked Like or commented on the photo after you.

Yuck.

Have no fear, this deterrent to social interaction can be remedied! If you log into your Facebook account and visit Account » Account Settings » Notifications, there's actually an option to turn off email notifications for "Comments after you on a Wall story".

This won't prevent these things from coming in as on-site notifications (the little red badge), but it will certainly keep your inbox a bit more tidy.

Don't forget to do the same for photos, links, notes and videos.