Appear offline on Facebook even if you are signed in

I love Facebook and really enjoy catching up with long lost friends and family. However sometimes I do not feel like chatting and just want to visit Facebook to catch up on the gossip. There is just not enough time in the day to chat to everyone you meet up with on the internet.  This is why it is handy to be able to sign into Facebook but appear like you are offline so your contacts do not see you and try to chat to you.

Below is a screenshot of my Facebook account when I am signed in. At this point if anyone sees me online they could possibly start up a chat session with me.

How to appear offline on Facebook.

1. When you are signed into Facebook, go to the bottom, right hand corner to see this Chat bar. It shows a green light that means there are three people I know online available to chat.  See the screenshot below.

1. Click on the chat bar to see who is online and to get to the options. You can click where I have marked the bar with a red cross.
2. Now a box will pop up and show you who is online. Click on Options.

1. When you click on Options you will see another popup pictured below.

1. Now choose Go Offline from the options menu.
2. Now if you look at the chat bar, pictured below, it shows that I am offline.

Ok so now you are free to check out all the gossip and not get disturbed by people wanting to chat. If you want to go back online simply click on the chat bar again and it will immediately reverse the procedure.