Finstas. Something I had never heard of until about two or so years ago.
Finstas can be defined as, “a fake (or second) Instagram account, primarily used to hide scandalous and overtly sexual behavior, cultivate an alter ego, and function with anonymity to troll peers.”
As a college student, I have seen my fair share of finstas. The good, the bad and the ugly. We have fun, we take pictures, and then, we just love social media, so we go to the handy-dandy finsta, and post, rant, and update our few followers that we allow. There you go, that’s what happens when you have a finsta.
Everything sounds great, right?
Well, sure, at the moment it does. But there are some things you might want to know before you post again.
Before I do go on though, I would like to admit that there was a time where I did have a finsta, which has since been deleted, but I do still follow some finsta accounts. Although I have changed my mindset on them now, I do not want to come off as hypocritical.
- Nothing that you post is ever deleted. You can delete what you posted, but there is still a way for people, such as future employers, to see what there might have been at one time. With this being said, a “private” account is never fully private, and it can always be accessed from the time you post something.
- Cyberbullying could become a factor. It has been told that people can create these “anonymous” accounts and use them to be harmful to others.
- Anything that you post can be tracked back to your phone number. Kind of scary if you think about it, right? Right.
All I am going to leave off with is the fact that yes, finstas can be fun, and yes, it can be easy to want to rant to your friends about a bad final or post a picture from a rough night, whatever, but what I do want to say is to be careful with what you post. There is always a possibility of someone screenshotting what you posted and sending it to many others, or even having your future be affected by some silly picture.
Let’s focus on the rinstas, the real Instagram’s, and post happy, fun, positive photos, so that in a couple of years when we are off trying to find jobs or even just finding something you want to show your grandma, we can do it.
The power of social media is impressive, but it will become more and more relevant throughout our lives. We have to stay safe and responsible with the content we post.
