Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter give users the ability to connect with friends, family, and people around the world. One of the key features of these platforms is the ability to share updates, photos, videos, and other content in posts that your connections can see and interact with.
However, sometimes you may not want a certain friend or connections to see a particular post you’ve shared. Many social platforms provide options to ‘hide’ your posts from specific people while still keeping it public to your other connections. But what exactly happens when you hide a post from a friend? Here we’ll explore the effects and implications of hiding social media posts.
What is hiding a post?
Most major social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn allow you to hide your posts from specific connections without entirely limiting the post’s visibility to your other connections.
For example, on Facebook you can select friends you want to hide a certain post from by clicking on the audience selector when creating the post. You can choose to hide it from acquaintances, close friends, family, or a custom list of specific people.
The post will then not be visible on that friend’s news feed or your profile to them – it’s as if it doesn’t exist for that person. However, all your other friends and connections would still be able to see and interact with the post as normal.
Why do people hide posts from friends?
There are a few key reasons why someone may want to hide a social media post from certain friends or connections:
1. Privacy and boundaries
You may want to share a post expressing opinions, life updates, photos, or details that you only feel comfortable sharing with some of your friends and not others. Hiding a post can allow you to share freely while still establishing boundaries.
2. Avoid awkwardness or drama
Some posts reference inside jokes, stories, or details that only make sense to some of your friends. Hiding those posts from the other connections avoids confusion or awkwardness. You may also want to hide relationship status changes from exes.
3> Separate friend groups
If you have distinct groups of friends, family, coworkers, etc. hiding posts allows you to choose what sides of yourself to present to each. Keeping friend groups separate avoids blending different aspects of your life.
How does hiding work technically?
On a technical level, when you elect to hide a post from specific friends, the social media platform essentially makes that post invisible and inaccessible to just that list of connections.
Several things happen:
1. The post does not appear in the hidden connections’ feeds and timelines.
This includes both the main news feed and your personal profile timeline that a hidden connection would see. It’s like the post was never made in the first place for them.
2. The post is omitted from notifications.
Friends hidden from a post will not receive any notifications related to that post – likes, comments, shares, etc. It’s excluded from their alerts.
3. Hidden friends cannot interact with the post.
They cannot see, like, comment on, or share a post they’ve been hidden from. It’s not visible or interactive to them at all.
4. Analytics exclude hidden friends’ data.
Analytics on post performance like reach and engagement totals will exclude the hidden friends to reflect numbers accurately.
5. Machine learning is adapted over time.
AI and machine learning algorithms that control what content users see will learn to exclude posts hidden from specific friends from their feeds.
What can hidden connections see?
What exactly is visible and hidden varies slightly between platforms. But in general hidden connections will not see the post or any activity on it, but may see:
Limited notifications
While they won’t see specifics, some platforms may show a generic notification like “John shared a post.”
Reactions from non-hidden friends
They could see if other non-hidden friends have liked, commented on, or shared a post made by you that they can’t see.
Group activity
If the post is made in a group or page, group activity may still be visible even if the specific post is hidden.
So elements of a hidden post can pop up indirectly, even if the post itself remains unseen.
What happens when you unhide a post?
You can also undo hiding a post and make it visible to friends again. When you unhide a post:
The post appears retroactively
The original post is now visible on their feeds and your profile as if it was never hidden in the first place.
Notifications are restored
Friends now get notifications as normal for that post even if they came while it was hidden.
Interaction abilities resume
Connections can now like, comment, share, and interact with the post as normal after being unhidden.
Analytics update
Metrics for the post now include the unhidden friends as if they had access the whole time.
So unhiding brings things back to the original visible state for connections.
Can hidden friends tell a post was hidden?
In most cases, no. Friends who are hidden from a post have no obvious indication it was obscured from their view unless you actually tell them.
The post appears retroactively as normal when unhidden. The hiding and unhiding actions are not conveyed through the platform interfaces by default.
However, factors like:
– Discontinuous notification timing
Getting notifications at odd times when unhidden can give clues.
– Seeing others interact in the interim
If they see others commenting on a post before it appears, they may guess it was hidden.
– Observing trends over time
If one friend notices a pattern that you frequently hide posts from them specifically, they could deduce some posts are being hidden.
But there are no unambiguous signals a specific post was ever hidden. You’d have to intentionally confirm it.
Pros of hiding posts from friends
Hiding social media posts from specific friends has its advantages:
More control over privacy
Post only what you want certain friends to see and keep other stuff private.
Avoid awkwardness
Keep potentially uncomfortable posts from certain connections.
Separate friend groups
Curate what different circles see from your life.
Reduce fatigue from frequent posters
Hide frequent posters without fully unfollowing or unfriending them.
Reduce clutter in feeds
Hide irrelevant or uninteresting posts from some friends.
Improve ad targeting
See ads based only on non-hidden posts you’ve liked and engaged with.
Cons of hiding content
However, there are some downsides to selectively hiding social media posts as well:
Can feel deceptive
Hiding content without consent can seem sneaky and undermine trust.
Creates uneven perspectives
Friends see limited, filtered views of your life that others don’t.
Extra complexity to manage
It adds more effort to curate feeds and manage audiences for each post.
Important info could be missed
Hidden friends miss major life updates or need-to-know posts.
Reduces context
Friends see fragmented content without full context from hidden posts.
Metric distortion
Analytics like engagement rates and reach numbers can get skewed.
Best practices for hiding posts
If you do choose to hide select social media posts from certain friends, some best practices include:
Do it sparingly
Don’t hide large portions of your posts or it defeats the purpose of sharing.
Keep friend groups separated
Use friend lists to consistently hide the same types of content from the same people.
Tell close friends you hide some content
Let close connections know you sometimes restrict audiences for certain posts so it’s less surprising.
Avoid hiding important life updates
Make major personal announcements universally visible when appropriate.
Watch for signs of offense
If hidden friends seem slighted, have an open conversation to clear the air.
Reveal hidden posts when relevant
If a hidden post becomes relevant later, consider unhiding it to provide context.
Conclusion
Hiding social media posts from specific friends lets you curate what parts of your life different people see online. It allows more privacy and control over your content. But it also has downsides like feeling deceptive if done improperly.
Overall, hiding posts is a feature to use sparingly and strategically. Keep friend groups consistent, avoid hiding anything too important, and watch for signs of offense. Used judiciously, it can help tailor social media feeds to appropriate audiences. But frequent hiding can undermine the authentic social connection that makes these platforms so compelling.