Finsta, Nicole Pavlovic

Finsta

Nicole Pavlovic

As part of my research in identifying a keyword, I consulted with an adolescent family member of mine. I selected the keyword finsta, a word that I was unfamiliar with but intrigued to learn more about. As defined by Urban Dictionary, a finsta is an Instagram user’s fake account. Its meaning centres around the fact that some Instagram users will have a real Instagram account (rinsta) and a finsta. The real Instagram account is carefully curated and is accessible to the outside world and their extended social network, while the finsta is only shared with a small network of friends. The finsta account name is usually comical or includes a purposeful misspelling of the real account’s name. The account also typically features humorous or potentially compromising content that the user would not want to share with a larger online community (Kang & Wei, 1). Instagram launched as a social platform over a decade ago with the intention of featuring photography. However, over time, users began posting only the images that showcased themselves at their personal best (Kang & Wei, 3). This has become rather problematic, especially for younger and less critically literate users who tend to interpret these curated representations as someone else’s real life. They will then compare it to their own lives, which affects their overall self esteem and in some cases their mental health (Nesi, 118). Social media platforms have also been criticized due to their respective digital permanence; this refers to the irreversible nature of online posting where posts from the past can critically impact a person’s future (Nesi, 116). This has led to some users opting to make their social activity private in order to avoid the respective consequences if their parents, potential employers, or university recruiters came across it (Kang & Wei, 6). Additionally, not all followers of a person’s real Instagram account share the same core values, worldviews, and interests as the account holder. As a result, they need to be careful about what they post in order to avoid alienating themselves from their extended social network (Kang & Wei, 3). Even with the option to make an Instagram account

private, a finsta account is considered to be even more restricted than a private rinsta account as it is shared with a limited audience and is virtually unsearchable to prying parties (Kang & Wei, 5). Resultingly, the rinsta account becomes more of a manufactured representation of what the user wants the world to believe them to be: happy, accomplished, and appropriately behaved. Oftentimes these rinsta representations tend to be extremely deceiving displays of reality (Kang & Wei, 3). Contrastingly, the finsta showcases more of the user’s intimate inside stories, and in the context of adolescent development as outlined by Psychotherapist Margot Waddell in her book Inside Lives: Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality, these stories are hard to access. This access is only granted to a small group of peers that the user feels comfortable with and accepted by (Kang & Wei, 7). Adolescence is a period of emotional struggle, physical change, finding oneself, experimentation, and risk taking (Gilbert, 35). The finsta account acts as a safe, judgement-free environment where the adolescent can share their deepest feelings. They can also explore their personality and interests outside of their family unit, as well as showcase their riskier behaviour with the friends they have designated to like and participate in their journey of self-discovery. The finsta gives the adolescent the autonomy they crave and allows them to express themselves however they choose, free from the influence of their parents’ expectations (Gilbert, 37). From the adult lens, a finsta account could be seen as problematic given the private nature of them, especially if the account holder is struggling emotionally and is only sharing this information with a small network of their peers instead of trusted adults (Nesi, 119). However, the adolescent development experience is universal in terms of its secrecy and risk-taking behaviour (Gilbert, 29). This universal truth will remain constant regardless of the existence of social media networks and finsta accounts. Adolescents are using finsta as a more honest form of self-expression and social bonding during an already challenging personal growth period. As a result, the finsta account should be free from adult encroachment and control. Instead, parents should make space for Instagram accounts, whether real or fake, as one of the many facilitating environments on the adolescent's journey towards growth and maturity (Gilbert, 34).

To learn more about this keyword visit:

Scholarly Journal:

https://journals-scholarsportal-info.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/details/03623319/unassigned/nfp_l mbamfmfuffi.xml

Other: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Finsta

References

(2017). Finsta. Urban Dictionary. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Finsta Gilbert, J. (2014). “Chapter 2: There is no such thing as an Adolescent,” in Sexuality in school: The limits of education. University of Minnesota Press. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/york/reader.action?docID=1762170&ppg=1

Kang, J., & Wei, L. (2019). Let me be at my funniest: Instagram users’ motivations for using Finsta (a.k.a., fake Instagram). The Social Science Journal. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2018.12.005 Nesi, J. (2020). The impact of social media on Youth Mental Health. North Carolina Medical Journal, 81(2), 116–121. https://doi.org/10.18043/ncm.81.2.116 Waddell. (2018). Inside Lives: Psychoanalysis and the Growth of the Personality (Rev. ed.). Taylor and Francis.