3. Help! Facebook Can See My Embarrassing Spotify Habits!
FAQs of (Web) Life is back with another column about tech and social perception: Gmail vs. ISP email; free stock photo tips; Spotify/Facebook shame; more LinkedIn worries
Question:
Dear Ms. Andrus,
Can you help me adjust the settings on the interaction between my Spotify and Facebook accounts? I love the Facebook sidebar on Spotify that lets me view the playlists and artists that my friends mark as their favorites. However, the setting that lists every song I listen to on my Facebook newsfeed becomes problematic when I feel the need to jam out to some Jesse McCartney and old school Mandy Moore (the ‘Candy’ days). Can I limit all newsfeed posts? Help me save face on Facebook!
- A Closeted Spice Girls Fan
Answer:
Dear Closeted Spice Girls Fan,
I totally know what you mean! What else is free streaming music good for if you can’t rock out to all the stuff you’re too embarrassed to buy at the store? There are more than a few ways to limit or completely remove your Facebook and Spotify embarrassments so let’s get to it.
When you agreed to connect your Facebook account to Spotify, you probably left the box checked that said “Get personal recommendations by sending music you play to your Facebook Timeline.” Now we all know what that really means: “Get personally ridiculed by blasting my secret music obsessions to all my friends.” Uncheck the box by going to the Spotify menu bar>Preferences>Facebook. Under the same Facebook section (or underneath the Spotify menu bar), you can also select “Private Listening.” Now no one will know when you come down with Bieber Fever.
If you’re OK with some of your close friends seeing your song choices, you can jump over to Facebook then go to Account Settings>Apps>Spotify>Edit>App activity privacy>Custom. Here is where you can select “Only Me” or “Specific People or Lists”
To be fully sure no funny business is getting sent to Facebook, you can disconnect your Facebook account by going to Spotify menu bar>Preferences>Disconnect from Facebook. But then you’ll also lose access to all your Facebook friends’ playlists which means you can’t make fun of their terrible taste in music.
While we’re talking about keeping your music private, it might be worth mentioning how to keep your iTunes library to yourself as well. Especially when you’re in a public place or at work, you really don’t want your coworkers to know you’re listening to GLEE or the Twilight audiobook, right? Uncheck the box under iTunes>Preferences>Share my library on my local network. That’s better.
Now go live out your musical fantasies without shame. Rock on.
Aubre
- 1. Does My ISP e-mail address look bad? Yes.
- 2. The Truth About Royalty Free Images Vs. Free Stock Images
- 3. Help! Facebook Can See My Embarrassing Spotify Habits!
- 4. Who Can I Link On LinkedIn? LIONS.
If you're really wanting to look professional, you need to buy your own domain and pay for a server. Then, you can use Google Apps for free and have an e-mail address like "roni@roniweiss.com", which looks much better than *@gmail.com
Personally I think a gmail account makes you look cheap. Unless you work for Google, as I think you probably do, there's no good reason to have a gmail account.
Personally I think a gmail account makes you look cheap. Unless you work for Google, as I think you probably do, there's no good reason to have a gmail account.
Your user name describes completely the phrase I was going to use to describe your comment. It is perfect! What email account doesn't look cheap, in your opinion? A vanity URL with your own name (to me this is the equivalent of a vanity license plate, and completely unnecessary unless you a promoting your own business).
Thanks for reading,
Rachel Rosmarin
Managing Editor, Tom's Guide
Honestly when I see a gmail.com account I simply think the same as completecynic (wherever the heck his comment went). Gmail is so mainstream and so popular and so personal it simply appears to me to be cheap and unprofessional.
Then again if an employer cares so little about your actual qualifications that they are basing their opinion of you on what email provider you use you have to wonder if they are really worth working for.
It really shouldn't matter and, in the actual professional world where people work for a living it doesn't. No construction foreman will care, no Engineering firm will care, and no government agency will care (barring those requiring a security clearance).