When you log into Facebook, the first thing you see is the Home page, also known as the News Feed. This is a list of status updates, photos, links, etc. from your friends, pages, and applications. Each of these pieces of news are known in Facebook lingo as a "story". The News Feed is a great way to see what your friends are up to, but it easily becomes cluttered. Unless you play Farmville, do you care about your friend John's radish harvest? Do you care that your co-worker Joan just left the local vet?
Facebook gives you the option to hide people and applications from the News Feed. Just hover your mouse over the story, and an X button will appear. Click the X, and you'll see a few option buttons. You can hide the person or page, hide the application, or mark the story as spam.
Don't worry about hurting anyone's feelings; the person, page, or app won't know that you've hidden their stories. And if you later regret hiding them, you can always add them back into your news feed:
Source: Facebook Help Center: Where are News Feed Preferences?
