Everyone always has a negative association with finstas, but I am here to tell you that there is a positive side to them too.
For those that don’t know, ‘finsta’ means fake Instagram. In the past few years, people have started to create this additional Instagram account where they only allow close friends to follow them. Then they post pictures that they would not post on their regular Instagram account. Finstas are often used to write negative or self-deprecating posts or to rant about a bad day. In the beginning, I always thought it was so stupid to have a private account to post personal things, but now I know there’s a lot more to it.
Photo by Gian Cescon on Unsplash
Everyone can agree that social media has increased mental health and self-image issues in teenagers and young adults. Instagram specifically has caused a lot of issues because people tend to edit all of their pictures to look skinnier or more perfect, and people post whenever they are at a fun event to make it seem like they are living a really fun life. This makes teens feel bad about their own image or feel left out of events. This is called pseudo-events. Pseudo-events are events or activities that seem more important or better than they are because the media frames them that way. Young adults lives seem so much better than they really are on social media, making others feel like their lives are boring or not as good as other peoples.
Finstas provide a solution to this issue. Following all of our friends’ finstas allows young adults to see behind the usual pseudo-events into the real struggles that everyone faces day to day. As people post either funny things about themselves or rant about a bad day, their friends will often comment in support or show that the same thing has happened to them. This breaks down the walls that other social media has put up, allowing us to see that all of our peers are struggling through life one day at a time just like the rest of us. We all have our best and worst days, and finstas allow us to see that and feel better about it.