---
title: "VKontakte's filter vs. lists on Facebook and Twitter"
author: "Stan Voo"
url: https://www.99rabbits.com/blog/vkontakte-filter-vs-facebook-and-twitter-lists
published: 2012-03-28
summary: "Feed addiction is real. In 2012 VKontakte had a filter that cut the home feed down to a handful of close friends, and it helped. For a while."
---

# VKontakte's filter vs. lists on Facebook and Twitter

Many of us suffer from feed addiction: every N units of time we check the feeds of our profiles on various social networks. VKontakte, the Russian-language social network, good old Facebook, hipster Pinterests and the by now fairly mainstream [Tumblr](https://www.99rabbits.com/blog/what-i-like-about-tumblr), not to mention niche and topical services... They are beyond counting.

Some people realize how harmful this habit is. I've long "lived" on FB (Facebook) and Twitter, and only recently started a profile on VK (VKontakte) too. I'd like to draw the public's attention to a useful difference I recently discovered between VKontakte and the other feed-making services.

Many people learned long ago to organize lists of "friends" and subscriptions, but **only VKontakte can actually filter the feed**, that is, by default (on the home page) **show only selected posts**. Here's how.

1. Create a small list of your closest friends, whose updates you definitely don't want to miss (photos from the office party, yeah): [My Friends](http://vk.com/friends) → "Create a list" in the right-hand column.
2. Go back to the home page, which long ago became [http://vk.com/feed](http://vk.com/feed), that is, the news feed. Under the status field, on the right, find the little "Filter" button and choose the list you created.
3. Voilà! Now compulsively refreshing VKontakte loses its unconscious pull: news shows up very rarely → the bad habit gives ground.

It helps me. Give it a try.

UPD: It turns out not all users have these filters. The network's administrators are testing the feature. They took mine away :(