S Finsta Frenzy
Most teens we spoke to admit that Finsta is a better way of keeping in touch with friends from across the world than that phone call no one in the university has time for
ometimes, you may find yourself wondering what your life — the one lived on social media — would have been like had your parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, second cousins and third cousins not been part of it. ( Has a picture of utopia already popped up in your head?) Over the years, Facebook and Twitter have become mass platforms to form and gauge the ‘ public sentiment’. In the process, they’ve also become virtual war zones. Trump versus Clinton, feminism versus feminazi- sm, right versus left — the debates abound, and Lord save you if the person you are arguing with happens to be a family member.
Between the activism on Facebook and the fierce politicking on Twitter, Instagram comes across as that promised land of social media harmony. From posting pictures of an elaborate meal to showing off your sculpted body to the world and sometimes even making your political allegiances known by putting up pictures of quotes, it is a diary of your social life. Amid this enter the same parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, second cousins and third cousins ( some of us may love our families enough to not turn down their friend requests) and, all of a sudden, your midnight partying is secretly frowned upon, your effort at showing off those abs met with raised eyebrows. If you have witnessed none of the above, then congratulations on living your happily ever after on social media. If you have, here is a trend that could be your saviour.
It was in 2015 that the term ‘ Finstagram’ first made its debut into the social media lexicon. However, it wasn’t until this year that it made its presence felt. Finstagram is a fake Instagram account, rather a parallel one, that teens — mostly the ones in high school — have been creating to post more candid and whacky pictures of themselves that are meant to be seen by a select peer group. So, while your Rinstagram ( the ‘ real’ Instagram account) could have family, friends, well- wishers and acquaintances cheering every single milestone of your social life, on Finstagram, a whole different party is happening. Instagram is not the only social media platform where you can have a ‘ fake’ account, but what makes the phenomenon of ‘ Finstas’ popular is the nature of the medium itself. Unlike Facebook or Twitter, Instagram is a more visual space and what you post here almost always reflects your way of life.
Eighteen- year- old Divya Mehra’s ( name changed) Rinstagram image is that of a fun- loving, regular teen living in her own la- la land. Though she’d like to believe that no one in her family would consciously monitor her posts, she does admit that she has an image to maintain as there are many young children in the family who look up to her. To strike a balance, she recently created a Finstagram account. If she feels no one in the family monitors her ‘ Rinsta’, why create a ‘ Finsta’? Divya answers promptly, “It’s a form of documentation for all my funny/ emotional/ wild stories. It’s an interesting way of keeping in touch with friends from all over the world without a weekly 30- minute phone call that no one in the university has time for.”
In the absence of the “30- minute phone call”, what do Divya’s Finsta friends get? “Ugly selfies, funny photos, screenshots of chats and sometimes even captions of my dating experiences,” she says, adding that she does not even think about what she posts. Of course, her Finstagram is private and has her closest friends and some cousins she can trust.
Posting images on Instagram, or for that matter any other social media channel, can also become a mini popularity contest where the number of likes and hearts received on a post can lead you to believe that you are to the Internet what the Kardashians have been to reality television. With Finstagram, that ‘ pressure’ seems to have eased off. Once you have created an account, you do not have to worry about the numbers or engagement on your posts. As Divya says, “Finsta is definitely liberating because I don’t even think about what I post. I trust my followers completely, so I just post what I feel. I also think too many people are influenced by likes, etc. Since I don’t want to be one of those kinds, Finsta is great. I don’t care if I have three likes or 20.”
Several social media experts opine that Finstagram has been a by- product of the refusal to look prim- and- proper all the time on social media. A Guardian article last month, in fact, stated that Finstagram affords more reality to a user because “it’s where you can post ugly selfies, private jokes, personal rants, pictures of outfits you are genuinely seeking advice on, screenshots of funny, family group texts, pictures of yourself in the middle of a good cry, that sort of thing, to a relatively sympathetic audience”. So a number of apps that are meant to enhance your features and slim down your face can actually RIP on your Finsta.
Most teens we spoke to also emphasised that having a Finsta is not just fun and games; somewhere, there is a desire to
TAKE A PEEK: ( right) A snapshot of Malaika Parab’s Finsta post on Sabyasachi Mukherjee engage with a peer group that understands your creative interests and is better equipped at giving feedback. Malaika Parab, 19, a student of business administration, opened her Finsta account just two months ago. She says her posts on her Rinstagram and Finstagram ( memes, throwback pictures, et al) aren’t really that different.
However, on her Finsta, she admits she goes a notch further. “I mainly post pictures when I have something to say about them. For instance, designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee recently released a new line for his fashion label. The designs were amazing and I felt like I needed to post them on my Finsta, so that my friends also know about it and can share their thoughts with me.”
It’s not all roses and peaches though. A Finstagrammer’s got to be careful of ‘ Finsta snitches’ — friends they may have added during happier times, but who have fallen apart since. And hence from time to time, one needs to carefully monitor their Finsta accounts to weed out anyone who might talk about the kind of stuff one has been putting on their Finstagram. Seventeen- yearold Heena Ramchandani takes comfort in the fact that no matter what she posts on her Finsta, she would not be judged. But a careful selection and elimination of friends has resulted in only 90 people making it to her Finsta friends’ list as opposed to the 1,600 she has on her Rinsta. Ditto for Divya, who actually monitors her followers and goes through her list weekly, sometimes even blocking people she cannot trust anymore. “Although I am an open book, Finsta is a platform to be authentic. That can, however, make you vulnerable if the right kind of people are not following you.”
The teens’ perspective aside, we reached out to Instagram to ask how well aware they have been about the trend and if at all the Finstas are monitored separately. “Finstagram is something we have been aware of for some time but we believe it’s a very small percentage of our global 600 million user base. Instagram is a place for selfexpression and if people want to create separate accounts for their personal passions and interests, we welcome it. It’s a visual platform to share everyday moments, so having numerous accounts offers people the freedom to craft different personas if they choose,” an Instagram spokesperson told wknd. via email.
Social media can sometimes be a Rubik’s Cube — the puzzle intensifies the moment you think you’ve solved it. Perhaps the need to be spontaneous and less perfect are good enough reasons for the teens to add another account to their social media checklist. But dig deeper and you may actually find yourself asking if this is a rejection of a very basic tenet of social media — image crafting. Can Finstagram save us from our narcissism? Or is it an extension of it? The answers are anything but easy!
A Finstagrammer’s got to be careful of ‘ Finsta snitches’ — friends they may have added during happier times, but have fallen apart since. And hence from time to time, one needs to monitor their accounts to weed out unwanted friends”
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