Social media has increasingly become society’s way of communicating since the technological era began. Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and other forms of social media have become a widespread epidemic of teenagers. The newest addition to the social platform of Instagram known as ‘Finsta’ or ‘Fake Instagram’ is breaking the social media barriers of today’s society.

Finsta has become a new platform of social media in which people have both a Real Instagram and a Fake Instagram. The idea of a Fake Instagram is that people create this account to allow the closest people in their life to see what they post. This account is usually private and people tend to post more personal content on their Finsta. Out of the 50 Wheaton Warrenville South students surveyed, 100 percent of the students have heard of a Finsta and about 80 percent have their own Finsta.

The article, “On Fake Instagram, a Chance to Be Real,” states, “Life becomes a never-ending junior varsity “Vanity Fair” shoot, and the pressure among Instagram’s regular users to present idealized images of themselves has only increased as celebrities have inundated the platform with their own envy-evoking posts.” Instagram has started to become people’s platform to display their ‘picture perfect’ lives, so Finsta became a popular trend in teenagers.

The USA Today states, “Think of the “rinsta” as a public persona, where users will share curated images, whereas a “finsta” is a more unfiltered experience.” Seventy-two and a half percent of South students agreed that people post content on Finsta that they wouldn’t post on their real Instagram. This ‘unfiltered experience’ gives students a chance to be real about their lives instead of only posting the highlights on their real Instagram.

Emily Bute, senior at South, explained Finsta’s purpose as, “To share posts that you wouldn’t be comfortable with people outside of your tight circle of associates and friends seeing.” The other main reason Finsta has become a popular trend is to share posts with your closest friends. People often have hundreds or even thousands of followers on Instagram, most of the followers being acquaintances or strangers, so Finsta is a way to share with people you are most comfortable with.

As a result of this trend, The Conversation states, “Growing up in the social media era, members of this age group are acutely aware of the pressures on them to create and maintain the picture-perfect online profile. Finstas are often strategically used by teens to relieve this pressure.” As long as Finsta is used in a positive way to relieve the pressures of society’s standards of perfection, the trend should continue to grow in the future.

“It’s given students the chance to see that every picture he or she posts doesn’t have to be edited or extremely thought out, and that’s ok!” said senior Isabel Santos. “In my opinion, Finsta helps student’s confidence more than hurts it.” Many of the South students responses explained that Finsta is a helpful way to express people’s true identities instead of concealing them on their real Instagram. As long as Finsta isn’t used to post hurtful content about others or illegal activity, teenagers should be able to continue using Finsta.

Finsta is a completely different platform of social media through Instagram that can be interpreted as a positive way to relieve societal pressures, or a way to talk about others and negatively impact society. It’s all about how people use it and it’s up for the rest of society to decide if this new use of social media will continue to rise in popularity.