In a modern era where abbreviations are an unavoidable reality, finsta is a word that has become a part of teenagers’ vocabularies. Fake Instagrams, abbreviated “finstas,” have become a popular trend among teenagers, beginning in the winter of 2015 and booming into popularity in 2016.
The sky is the limit for content posted on various social media outlets, and finstas exemplify a variety of unique content. Some of the content includes unfiltered selfies, memes and other random, funny pictures with creative captions. A finsta is a cross between Snapchat, where users send funny pictures to only their friends, and Instagram, where the audience is broader and includes more followers.
Junior Nycole Hidalgo started her finsta in the midst of its popularity.
“I have way too many “bad pictures’ of myself that cause me to laugh so why not share it with my friends so that they can also laugh too,” Hidalgo said.
Finstas have become an opening arena of self-expression in the world of social media, proving to be a manner for teens to express themselves in a way that they do not on their real accounts. Finstas authenticate the person behind that perfectly filtered selfie on your regular instagram (rinsta) feed, showing a more raw and humorous side to them. Self-expression, in any shape or form is creative and can take the route of humor, much like finstas do.
On the other hand, people use their rinstas for self-expression in a more limited way. Life is shown through a lens, consisting of carefully picked and filtered pictures, but finstas are a behind the scene, unfiltered look into a person’s life.
Additionally, unwritten rules that guide Instagram are cheerfully ignored on its fake counterpart. One unwritten rule includes not posting more than one picture a day. Finstas are not guided by this rigid rule, rather numerous pictures can be seen posted throughout the duration of a day.
“It’s perfectly acceptable, on a finstagram account, to unleash a stream of mundane images, screenshots of text conversations and ugly selfies,” New York Times writer Valeriya Safronova wrote in her article.
Junior Naomi Goldstein agrees with this. “I usually use my finsta to post funny stories or the occasional rant,” Goldstein said.
One question that always pops up when people mention finstas is “Why not Snapchat?” Snapchat is also used to send funny or “ugly” pictures to friends. But on Snapchat, photos to friends disappear within seconds, while a post on Instagram can stay as long as you want it to.
This is one of the reasons why finstas exist in the first place; as a long-term platform to make your friends laugh – a funny picture coupled with a witty caption is best kept permanently instead of completely disappearing within mere seconds.