I use FB all the time to talk to my friends and family. I didn't like the changes either but this is something that might help you out.
If you go to the top right hand corner and click on your name it will bring you to your profile.
Once there on the left hand side under news feed you will see a list - close friends acquaintenances family etc.
If you go to your friends list and catagorize them all it will be a whole lot easier.
But Beware! They're making more changes next week and they are going to start using FB as of January.
I know this is a bummer for me so my friends/family and myself are all moving into Google chat, its a whole lot user friendly than FB is.
Hope this helps to clearify it for some of you.