The race for the White House may be over, but the debate rages on. Whether your candidate of choice won or lost, the political discourse continues with no end in sight. Everyone from major news networks to your friend who majored in political science is arguing their views and opinions. If you’re anything like us, you’ve probably heard enough.
With Facebook and Twitter overrun with wannabe political analysts, there seems to be no escape. However, with the help of some easy-to-install extensions and apps, you can once again surf the web without fear of stumbling into a flame war. In addition, you’ll also be able to avoid spoilers of TV shows and movies. So before you inadvertently read another mention of Hillary’s emails, the size of Trump’s hands, or the leaked script to season 7 of Game of Thrones, get the following up and running ASAP.
Social Fixer
Social Fixer is a free extension for Chrome and Firefox that allows you to personalize your Facebook experience. It boasts a slew of features, but the one that appeals to us the most is the ability to filter your news feed. Social Fixer allows you to pick keywords and then filter any posts with those keywords out of your News Feed. Don’t want to see anything related to Hillary or the ugly baby your friend just gave birth to? With Social Fixer you won’t have to.
No YouTube Comments/Hide YouTube Comments
These are extensions for Firefox and Chrome, respectively, that hide YouTube comments. Whether you simply want to avoid spoilers while watching a movie trailer or are just tired of the obnoxious trolls lurking in the comment section of YouTube, these extensions will make your video viewing much more pleasant.
Advanced Profanity Filter
This Chrome extension allows users to censor specific words by replacing their letters with asterisks. For example, let’s say you find the word “dog” offensive for some reason, so you tell the profanity filter to censor it. Every time the word “dog” appeared in your browser, it would be bleeped out, appearing as “d**”. This won’t stop annoying news and inane baby shower photos from popping up, but it can be useful for those who might be too young for more colorful language.
Tweetdeck/Tweetbot
Whether it’s someone live tweeting an episode of the Karadashians or a politician’s rhetoric, Twitter can be incredibly annoying. Unfortunately the official Twitter app doesn’t allow you to filter content out, leaving the floodgates open for anyone to spout nonsense in 140 characters or less. Luckily, Twitter apps like Tweetdeck and Tweetbot do offer content filters. Simply add a keyword like “Trump,” and any tweet that mentions the president-elect will magically disappear.
WebFilter Pro/ProCon
These extensions for Chrome and Firefox are for those who want to go nuclear. If you are deadset on not having Game of Thrones appear, then TinyFilter and ProCon are for you. Installing these extensions will block your ability to visit a site that mentions House Targaryen. You nominate words, and they will prohibit access to websites that feature the words you have chosen. They were originally developed to block access to adult content, but they can be used for anything.
How do you prevent spoilers? How do you prevent the young ones from being exposed to inappropriate content on the Web? Let us know in the comments!
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