How to follow Facebook posts: A public service announcement :

For some reason, (too) many people cannot seem to figure out how to “follow” a post on a Facebook page without adding their own personal comment, such as “following” or “.”

Sometimes you get multiple stalker-comments.

On a controversial topic (e.g., for the AERC page, shoeing, helmets… see this post), there may be 20 “Following” comments, which is when it gets really annoying for those of us who want to read comments with substance (rare though these may be in any case).

Occasionally, I point out that they can simply turn on notifications by clicking on the menu on the right hand corner. So do other civic-minded irritable people. We get thanked occasionally, but we often get “I can’t do that on my device!” (huh???)

This blog post is for those who cannot figure it out on their own 😉 From now on, when I see this happening, instead of trying to explain, I will link to these instructions:

Notice the three dots to the upper right of the post in question.
Click on the three dots (or touch with your finger ;-). A drop-down menu will appear.
Select “Turn on notifications for this post.”
Having notifications turns ON is the same as FOLLOWING.
If you comment on a post, you automatically turn notifications on. This is why people comment with “following.” They’ve noticed the causal relationship and haven’t considered that there may be an ALTERNATIVE, equally sufficient cause. In fact, turning notifications on with the drop down menu is a necessary and sufficient condition for receiving notifications. Commenting is not, because you can comment and subsequently turn notifications off.

I have commented on the above post. If it becomes excessively active and I’ve seen as much as I want to see on the topic, I can turn off the notifications (i.e., unfollow the discussion).
The way it looks on a phone is very similar:
Android:

iPhone:

There do seem to be more options with the phone app 🙂