What Kind of Social Media Poster Are You?

Open the app you use most and look at your last post. When was it, and how long did you stare at the caption before you hit share?

Myth: people who post a lot are showing off

Most heavy posters are keeping a diary in public. They share the bus, the soup and the rainy window because that is how they remember a day. The size of the audience matters less to them than you would think.

Myth: quiet accounts belong to people who don't care

Some of the people who post the least watch the most closely. They know whose dog had surgery and who just moved. They chose to keep their own life offline, and that is a choice, not a lack of interest.

Myth: a neat feed means a fake life

A planned grid takes effort, but effort is not lying. Some people enjoy arranging photos the way others enjoy arranging a bookshelf. The life behind it can be just as messy as anyone's.

This quiz asks about small habits, like your camera roll, your captions and how you react to a friend's big news. Those habits are hard to fake because nobody thinks about them. There are no right answers, and the outcome is a light bit of fun rather than any kind of diagnosis.

Here is how the six posters show up in a normal week.

• Photo Dumper: Once a month you post fifteen photos at once, with a blurry dinner next to a sunset next to a parking ticket. You are saving the month, not polishing it.
• Grid Planner: You have a draft folder and a colour scheme, and you will wait two days for the right light. People open your page and feel like they walked into a clean room.
• Quiet Observer: Your last post is from last spring, but you have seen every story your friends shared this week. When you do post, the comments pour in.
• Story Narrator: Your friends know what you ate for lunch, how bad the traffic was and what your cat knocked over. You share the day while it is still happening.
• Caption Comedian: The photo is often just a plate of pasta, and the caption is the real show. Your comments under other people's posts get more likes than the posts.
• Close Friends Keeper: Your account is private and your list is short. You would rather send a silly video to eight people who get it than to eight hundred who don't.

Try this for one day: before you post or share anything, ask who you picture seeing it. A crowd, one friend, your future self or nobody at all? The answer says a lot about why you post.

The ten questions below will sort you into one of the six.