Drew Davis, Reporter
@ddaviscourant
Bored of scrolling through an Instagram feed full of the faces of her acquaintances, sophomore Annie* logs out of her account. Using an obscure username and secure password, she logs into a completely new account. Rather than seeing perfectly posed pictures, she now scrolls through an endless stream of random and silly pictures of her closest friends.
This second account is not just another Instagram account, it is a fake Instagram or ‘Finsta’. Used to project more personal pictures to a selective group of friends, Fintas have begun to gain popularity within the past few months.
Finstas are private accounts where the owner chooses who follows them based on how well they personally know each other. “Finsta is a private Instagram account that only a small community of people follow because it’s more personal,” Annie* said. “I only have 60 of my closest friends following me on my Finsta, which is significantly less than my real Instagram.”
As opposed to regular Instagram, on Finsta people like junior Thomas* feel free to post whatever they want without the social pressures from the popularity of Instagram. “I made a Finsta because I feel like people would judge me if I posted pictures about myself on my real account,” he said.
For Mark*, a sophomore who is a frequent poster on Finsta, the pictures he posts can range from crazy selfies to random snapshots of his day. “Sometimes I will post a picture of someone in the cafeteria, a selfie, or even a video of me on a yoga ball,” he said.
Essentially, anything goes on Finsta as long as it is not as serious as something that could be posted on real Instagram. “I get angry because people post Finstas that are things they just did not want to post on their real Instagram,” Mark* said. “Finstas is not a place to post a picture of your feet in the bath with a filter on it. You need to be weird on Finsta.”
According to sophomore Daniel*, the purpose of posting on Finsta is not to get likes, but rather to make people laugh. “On Finsta you aren’t expecting many likes, you just post to make someone else’s day,” he said.
By eliminating the stress of producing socially acceptable pictures, students show off their unique and more personal sides on Finsta. “You see a lot of personality on Finsta because nobody cares about what they post,” Daniel* said.
Even more so than with other social media platforms, friendships can grow through Finsta because the social barriers are lowered to create a more intimate experience. “I got to know one of my now-closest friends through Finsta because it is a mean through which people see the real you,” Thomas* said.
Finsta has been used as a personal means of communication in which friendships form and are strengthened through the community of account holders. “Finsta can help you reach a new level of friendship with people because you are seeing their more personal side,” Annie* said. “I’ve connected with people who I wouldn’t necessarily be friends with because the Finsta feed has given us a common ground to talk about.”
As a result of feeling more protected by the privacy of Finsta, people feel comfortable posting risky pictures that would not show up on other accounts. “Occasionally I will see someone posting a picture of them and their friends holding a beer,” sophomore Julia* said. “It’s never okay to post pictures of substances on social media but since it is Finsta and it is private, I think to a certain extent it is a little more okay.”
To Annie*, a downside to Finsta is the bullying that occurs when people post pictures of others who are not among their followers. “Finsta can also be bad because there is bullying when people post things to make fun of other people,” she said. “They will post a picture of someone with a comment that says something mean about the person and they think it’s okay because supposedly they aren’t going to see it.”
However, through the use of screenshots, supposedly private Finsta pictures can be leaked to the public. “Whenever I see something interesting on Finsta I screenshot it and send it to my friends,” sophomore Sarah* said. “The picture’s exposure can spread from there.”
Even if the picture is not intended to be cruel, it can be incorrectly interpreted that way. “One time I posted something that I didn’t intend to be mean but the person saw it as mean and was hurt,” sophomore Jessica* said. “I felt really bad and deleted the post right away, but it just shows how things do get out.”
Regardless of its downfalls, many users have grown to favor the comical nature of Finsta over their regular account. “I like Finsta much better,” Thomas* said. “I have double the amount of posts on my Finsta than I do on my real Instagram and I’ve only had my Finsta for a few months.”
This growing trend is continuously attracting people because of its jokey nature and the user’s ability to share more intimate pictures with their friends. “I made a Finsta because my friends were making them and it looked fun when they would post silly pictures of random things,” Annie* said. “It is a good way to keep up with people and to look deeper into other people’s lives.”
*names have been changed
