Who really sees your posts, and where they go after you hit share

“Friends only” is a promise about how the platform displays a post, not about what happens next. A friend can screenshot it. A tag can put your photo in front of their followers. A comment on a public page is public even if your profile isn't. A deleted story can live on in someone else's camera roll.

This section follows posts past the audience picker. We look at tagging, resharing, archives, what platforms keep after you delete something, how posts get picked up by search engines, and the settings that help parents and teenagers set sensible limits.

Social media isn't a trap you need to escape. It's a publishing tool with fuzzy edges. Once you know where the edges are, you can post with a lot less worry.