how can i restrict certain ppl from seeing my facebook activity, without defriending them?

[Snippenhockers]

i hate to be so callous, but there is a guy friend on my fb, that hurriedly messages me, the second i get on fb (i keep my chat "offline")
no matter what activity i do when i am on there, he seems to see it, and tries to catch me before i log off...ive tried ignoring him, and replying to him later after feeling obligated, but when i dont right off, he gets hurt or concerned...he'll say things like, "you were JUST on fb, i know you had to have seen my message(s)"! sometimes, i just want to get on there to see how my family is, but if their posts are public, i feel like i have to "hide"...ive been friends with this guy for yrs., but we live states away now and fb is our biggest form of communication, however, i dont want to message him every day...(he always tries to talk to me forever!) how can i kindly deal with this, w/out being so apprehensive about going on fb. hes really getting on my nerves! deleting him is harder than you think...ive known him for yrs., but hes so sensitive, and i dont know how to not hurt his feelings.

[Defqon]

You can block them. You are still friends as I recall, but they cant message you. A another thing to do is to choose your messages to be //modified// it is a setting you can pick. if you click the gear wheel when trying to post a status, you can see things like, Just me. Friends. Friends of friends, etc. One of the options should let you decide who can see it and who not.