Your guide to Facebook changes

Facebook's stark new style takes some getting used to, as Hinerongonui Kingi reports:
For Rotorua teenager Averil Smith, the "new" Facebook changes took time to adapt to at first - but it wasn't worth getting upset about.
The 16-year old has been using the social networking site for a year and said she didn't like the changes at first but had since   become to like and understand the new style.
"I wanted to go back to my old page at first but I've got used to it and it's a lot easier now," she said.
"The new page is way easier to use and the new black screen when you look at photos makes it a lot easier to scroll across."
The only thing different she noticed was that her friends had become less active.
"I didn't know that the new changes meant that Facebook was blocking most of your friends from looking at your status messages and stuff by default," she said.
"I noticed the same friends were always coming up in news feed and commenting on my page but I didn't think it was because others couldn't see my page.
"It's disappointing that Facebook didn't let everyone know about this because I'm sure there's still a lot of people who don't know, but it's not worth getting upset about."
She said apart from that, the changes had made Facebook a lot easier to use and  she used the social networking site frequently.
"It was complicated at first, I didn't get it and I was used to the old style, but with the ever-changing world there was nothing else to do but keep moving forward."

What you need to know:

Are you aware Facebook has changed? 
The most noticeable change is probably friends seeing a banner of photos at the top of your profile and when you open photos they come up on a black screen.

You may even be  invisible to some people.
But as well as making it easier to use, the new profile settings could also make it harder without you realising.
Have you noticed you're not getting updates from some of your friends? Do they appear to be less active online?
You may have thought your friends aren't using Facebook any more, or you have been removed as a friend by some people. That's probably not the case. That is because Facebook is blocking most of your friends' list updates by default. To change that, scroll down to the bottom of the newsfeed on the homepage and click on "Edit Options", click on "Show Posts From" and change the setting to "All Of Your Friends and Pages".
People probably haven't blocked you, but instead the default means your news feed is only keeping you updated with posts from people you have interacted with or interacted the most with. So, unless you have interacted with friends or they have interacted with you, you're probably invisible to your other friends. Once you fix the edit option, you should tell your friends. Just because your options have changed, it doesn't mean those of your friends have.