With Instagram booming with popularity more than ever nowadays, the way people use it — compared to when it first hit our screens — has changed drastically.

For many people, Instagram has become a resumé of some sorts. The app seems to just capture people's most perfect days and the highlights of their lives. With photoshopped selfies and color-corrected photographs, people are choosing to display only their best, picturesque moments, and nothing else. By doing so, this puts major pressure on Instagram users to keep up with this seeming trend. Not only that, but those that present a picture-perfect life online, and may not meet this in real life, could easily be labeled as "fake" by imitating a different life than they truly live.

This pressure may lead to lowered self-esteem in users who feel as if they only can/always have to present idealized images of themselves. Constantly feeling the need to alter versions of oneself physically and psychologically can be extremely damaging to people's mental health. With celebrities having a large presence on social media as well, broadcasting their extravagant lives to the world, the standards are continuing to be raised and the pressure heightened.

However, as the need for perfection increases, instead of deleting the app altogether, Instagram users decided to turn to finstas as a way to show their true selves, while still staying active on social media.

For those who may not know, a finsta is a "fake-Instagram," generally with a small number of followers and some oddball username that may not make sense to the average passerby. This is typically just to increase the privacy of the account, so it cannot be traced back to the owner.

People use finstas for a plethora of reasons, but mostly as a way to post what they feel like they cannot on their rinsta(or real-Instagram) without being frowned upon by society. With Instagram, there are a couple unspoken rules that users typically seem to follow by. For example, it is not recommended to post more than once (or maybe twice) a day, nor should someone be posting 30 selfies in a row. Although many Insta-users will judge a person for breaking these rules, all of these "guidelines" are thrown out the door completely when it comes down to a finsta. The best part is that those who go to follow a finsta are almost signing a contract, willingly accepting the fact that they acknowledge that their feed may become filled with rants and silly selfies.

Finstas have created a space where people can genuinely just be themselves, while still using a social media app. They are judgment-free zones specifically meant for venting and just being downright dumb. Unlike Facebook, where we have to filter our lives so it's acceptable if grandma sees, and rinstas, where society really only wants us to show the photoshopped versions of ourselves, finstas give users the ability to take off any masks they may be hiding behind and just be themselves.