To say that Instagram is one of my favorite apps would be an understatement.
The app sits in the first row of accessible apps on my iPhone, while housing five accounts I either supervise or use for entertainment. This app has transformed how I witness news, media, friends and family. It has shaped how I take images on my iPhone — formatted to fit the ‘grams famous square layout. Whether I like it or not, this app has unconsciously influenced multiple details in my life from how I take an image or what I leave out of an image. And coming from a photographer, that statement can be a scary one to make.
Instagram has only been in existence since it launched in 2010. Before Instagram Stories and desktop applications, this mobile app was meant for users to snap and share photos almost immediately — mostly presenting images with overly exaggerated filters and no urge to curate a near impossible, perfect Instagram feed. So then what changed?
Over recent years (while growing from popularity) bloggers, celebs, photographers, and many others have utilized Instagram to communicate their specific platforms. While many Instagram users have done this in hopes of becoming ‘Insta-Famous,’ they have nonetheless sought out creating an account with a pleasing layout of pictures that sit almost harmonious, lacking the more mundane day-to-day lifestyle depiction.
Yet, this is where the newer ‘Finstagrams’ change the game once again.
Defined by Urban Dictionary as an account that is “a combination of ‘fake’ and ‘Instagram’” — a Finstagram is often times the less polished and more humorous side to many users social media accounts.
Though followed mainly by close friends and peers, while remaining as a private account, Finstagrams act as the perfect counter-argument towards what Instagram has become in this modern day and age.
Clouded with embarrassing images and videos, these accounts allow for users to share and post from a less serious standpoint. Though some users might post inappropriate behavior, these accounts still exist as a way for various users to express a more comical outer appearance.
Finstagrams exist in conjunction with ‘real’ Instagrams — however ‘real’ one perceives the world of social media anyways. Though users should still be conscious of posting on the Internet since information can never be completely deleted, the idea of an inclusive and amusing community is as inviting and carefree as many people feel around a group of their friends in real life — whether they have a Finstagram account or not.
