Hello Fan Friends,

Greeting from day, I’m not really sure what day it is, in quarantine. More days in isolation mean more unmotivated days job hunting and social media browsing. I’m not sure about any of you other single or (in my case) married 30 something old years but I feel like Facebook makes rather bold assumptions that if you’re a female in your 30s your biological clock must be deafeningly loud.

When I tell people that Tom and I are happy dog parents with no intentions of procreating, I’ve gotten reactions similar to if I had told a nun I’d become an atheist. The shock of breaking such an intensely imbedded social norm is enough for me to feel like maybe, the purpose of this blog can be geared more towards showing I’m not hedonistic for not wanting to be a Mom. While I’ll always have recipes, home and lifestyle posts, tarot/spiritual DIY projects, I’d like to focus on branding myself and this blog as Childfree. Since it’s something I feel really strongly about, I feel like NOT writing more posts geared towards people with similar lifestyle choices as me is inauthentic. That’s not to say there wouldn’t be things my parent audiences won’t be able to relate to: after all, there’s plenty of things such as food, drinks and DIY home projects I will write about that you can relate to but if you’re hoping that within the next 5-10 years this will become a more “Mommy-Centric” blog, it’s not going to happen.

I hope my audiences, even those with kids, read all my posts with an open mind and realize womanhood isn’t one size fits all. I love kids, they just aren’t for me. Which makes me wonder: Are social media outlets giving up on pushing the advertisement of individual interests verses the interest of what society deems acceptable?

I recently joined two childfree, closed Facebook groups. It was really nice to meet likeminded individuals who faced similar scrutiny from society from going against the grain. Charlotte* (name changed to protect the identity of this member) made me aware of something I didn’t know I could have control over and that’s my Facebook ads. I noticed, probably in my mid-twenties, as friends of me I grew up with or grew apart from during college began embarking on parenthood I got more ads for diapers, children’s stores, and just overall Mommy-centric ads. I would usually hide them or mark them irrelevant until Charlotte* recently posted on how to manage my ad preferences and my life was changed forever.

Here’s how to do it:

🌀Change your ad preferences!🌀

In the Privacy Shortcuts menu: scroll down to Ad Preferences, and click on Review Your Ad Preferences. Next you should see something entitled Hide Ad Topics. Now, before you ask this isn’t completely fool proof, but I put ‘parenting’ in which helped cut down on a lot of unwanted ads!

🌀Remove your off-Facebook activity🌀

Once you’re in the Privacy Shortcuts menu: scroll down to Your Facebook Information, View or Clear your off-Facebook Activity, and hit Clear History. After this, under More Options, go to Manage Future Activity and switch it to off. * This actually stops Facebook from using what you look at off of Facebook to do targeted advertising as well as allow you to keep your privacy!*

🌀Change your personal information🌀

In the Privacy Shortcuts menu: scroll down to Your Facebook Information, then Access Your Information. Scroll down to Profile Information – here you can change/remove details such as your age and gender to prevent FB algorithms targeting your profile for certain ads.

🌀Finally, hide any irreverent ads that do sneak in!🌀

This system isn’t perfect but it can safe you the hassle of bombardment on a regular basis. You can do this by clicking on the 3 dots in the top right corner of the ad in question and then scrolling down to “Hide ad”. Mark it as irrelevant– this helps Facebook to ‘learn’ what ads to not show you in the future.

I really hope this helped for any of you who wanted a more personalized experience on their social media platforms. Drop a comment below, and don’t forget to hit that follow button so you don’t miss any future posts!

*Please note both my Twitter and Instagram profiles are ‘request to follow’ if you’d like me to accept your request please send me a DM referencing this blog so I can accept you!*