It’s hard to separate Instagram from performance. Out of all of the social media apps, Instagram is the glossiest one, the one that’s designed for the perfect snapshot. Instead of acting like a digital journal where you can log your every day thoughts and activities, like Snapchat and Twitter, Instagram begs for you to revise your images, over and over, until you have the perfect photograph with the perfect caption that relays the image you want people to have of you. It’s a lot.
Due to this, many users are creating “Finstagrams”, which are fake Instagram accounts. Even though the name is stupid, these fake accounts give privacy to their users and allow them to be themselves, providing a less filtered experience. Finstas have become a place where people, especially young people, can vent about their issues honestly, and where they can post ugly selfies without worrying about anyone else.
These accounts are private and users don’t worry about their amount of followers, only allowing for their closest friends to have access to them. According to The Verge, Finstas are a good option for people who still want to be present on social media and who want to have the ability to speak their minds, but that don’t want to be under scrutiny.
These users follow small groups of people, and have small followings of their own, allowing for the development of a tight knit community where they won’t miss any of their friends’ posts and where their parents or family members aren’t going to be able to snoop in on them. I guess Finstas are like group chats but on the web.
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It’s all really weird, but it makes you think about social media and how it has the ability to evolve after a period of time. The younger the users are, the more invested they’ll be on social media, and the more individualism they’ll add onto the platform to make it their own. This can last for a while, until the general public discovers finstas and then the accounts will stop existing all together. And then another app will pop up, and the cycle begins all over again.
