unless you're branding your posts here with your real name and trying to monetize it, you're not really using social media in the way most folks mean it in 2026.

social media is when it's tied to your real life identity and your body, it's not anonymous posting on forums or message boards, which lemmy is more in the vein of.

I don't think anyone would regard my posts on forums and old.reddit.com as social media. if i had used reddit as a promotional tool for like my instagram business or as part of a personal brand I'm proving, yeah that would be very different.

IME real social media people are those who have basically internalized the concept of self branding and see their lives as entirely performative for their audience, whether that be internet strangers or their real life friend group.