Facebook tool to help you decide 'real friends'

Social networking giant Facebook has introduced a new tool to help users decide who their real friends are, and who is just an acquaintance.

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Social networking giant Facebook has introduced a new tool to help users decide who their real friends are, and who is just an acquaintance.

The social networking site introduced "Close Friends" and "Acquaintances" lists last year.

Now, by monitoring users' online interaction, the site will automatically suggest a list of friends who have not been contacted in a while to be demoted to 'acquaintances,' The New York Daily News reports.

On hitting the 'add to acquaintances' button, you will still be Facebook "friends" with that person, and they will never find out that they''ve been downgraded.

You will just see fewer of their posts in your feed, the report said.

You can also keep acquaintances from getting all of your life updates in the future.

When you are sharing something new on Facebook, hit the button to the left of "Post" in the lower right-hand corner of the update box, it should say "Public" or "Friends," depending on your default settings, the choose "Friends except Acquaintances."

Though the acquaintance list feature has existed since last fall, Facebook has just started recommending 'friends' you might not want to hear from for a while.

According to the report, to use this feature, one has to navigate to the "Friends" page, select the "Acquaintances" list, and then click on "See All Suggestions."