Now I know most people say that social media and other forms of online fake living are bad, but I’m bringing you a whole new level of bad social media trends: the finsta.
For those of you who do not know what a finsta/sinsta/whateveryoucallit is, a finsta is an Instagram account made for you to be able to post about the “real” things that are going on in your life, not just the happy side that everyday social media tends to see.
And I get it. Personally I have a finsta too, but I’m realizing some of the dangers of adding on a finsta to real social media.
With real social media (yes, in this case it is considered real) people tend to post about their day. The good food they’re eating, the party they went to last or their significant other who they love ever so deeply.
**DISCLAIMER** This rant is mainly considering Instagram so if you’re not familiar with the platform or only use other social medias like Twitter or Snapchat then sorry, this isn’t for you.
Okay back to the finsta.
So in Instagram social media we have the models, the moms, the businesses, the everyday students and the working people. It seems like almost everyone is on Instagram – the app has around 800 million monthly users according to statica.com.
On a finsta, people post about how many parties they’ve been too, their emotions, people they’ve hooked up with, dumb things they’ve done and even dumber things they’re about to do.
While it makes sense to make funny posts and have a smaller amount of followers to see the “real fake you,” I’ve started to notice a trend in the finsta lifestyle.
People are starting to do things only for the finsta. In fact, “I’m doing it for the finsta” is a quote I hear quite often.
It’s as if Instagram is starting to cultivate a whole other culture of trying to prove yourself, even when the goal of the original finsta is for someone to see the real you.
Having both a finsta and a rinsta (real Instagram) promotes even more of the social media stereotypes of projecting yourself in a manner to be cool, funny or unique without even taking to account what your daily life is.
And sure, having a finsta is fun, but the point is to make sure and understand that whenever someone is using social media, they’re projecting an aspect of themselves that isn’t 100 percent them.
While on Instagram, or any social media for that matter, people tend to become obsessed with the amount of likes and comments they receive as well as the image they’re projecting.
So many times I’ve heard people say “your likes don’t define you,” but deep down, Instagram users do notice the amounts of likes and attention their posts get compared to others.
The image or aesthetic of one’s Instagram plays a large part into this as well.
Having a theme or an aesthetically pleasing Instagram has become increasingly popular in the past few years. People would only post attractive things in exchange for what is actually going on in their life. I’ve also heard of people not posting pictures with their friends who aren’t as aesthetically pleasing or match the theme of their Instagram even though they are an important part of their life.
It’s this type of trend that makes me fear the increase of finstas.
Yeah it’s fun to post about the silly things you’re doing or the really ugly screenshot that your friend just sent you. But in reality isn’t that just furthering the notion of putting all of our lives on social media and not the real, real life?
My fear in the addition of finstas is that people start to live more and more of their life on social media. The second something happens, people feel the need to post about it and tell everyone without processing it themselves.
People need to understand the importance of who they are and that they’re more than who they project themselves to be.
Like all other anti-technology rants, I’ll say that our society is becoming so hyper focused on what is online, that we’re forgetting how to talk in person.
People need to understand how to talk about their problems and not text, subtweet or post about them. I understand it can be difficult and uncomfortable and unlike what so many people do nowadays.
In reality — judgement and rant aside — I have a finsta too and I post just as many dumb things as your average teenage college student, I just get annoyed with the culture, that is all.
