What exactly is a finsta, you may ask yourself? If you aren’t sure what to make of this interesting word, don’t worry, I was clueless too.
When my friends first brought this idea up to me, I thought they were talking about a fitness Instagram and I was completely uninterested because working out to me is like pulling teeth. Eventually, I caught up with the times and created one of my own.
For those unaware, a finsta is a fake Instagram, which differs from a “rinsta,” your real Instagram. The term finsta, however, is extremely misleading, in that the account in no way is designed to put on a fake persona, but instead is supposed embody the real person behind the tiny screen and ultimately serves to document the rhythms of their daily life.
The username and profile picture typically conceal one’s identity to keep the page top secret. Usernames are often witty and unique. Most importantly, the usernames do not correlate to the user’s actual identity as well as the profile picture and user biography. The two different types of accounts are like night and day, cat and dog, rain and sunshine.
A finsta is like a brand-new world where photos are stripped of their saturation, filters are nonexistent, and overthought captions are nowhere to be found. It’s a place where you exclusively invite your closest friends to the confines of your daily life.
That may include, but is not limited to, your recent obsession with the frat guy in your political science class, rants that are the length of all the Harry Potter series combined, and all those unfiltered selfies that show off all of your perfect imperfections.
These unique pages are a document of your daily life, your obsessions, struggles, achievements, love-stories, highly embarrassing selfies and everything in between. This trend has recently swept the nation, and numerous people are jumping on the bandwagon. Every college student should consider making one of these accounts and here’s why.
Finstas allow you to stay in contact with your besties from your hometown. Once high school ends, and all your childhood friends begin to carve their own unique paths, staying in contact can become a task in itself.
Admit it, your biggest focus in college is designating times for naps, Netflix and coffee runs. Friends you used to spend every day with are now hundreds, maybe even thousands of miles away from your hometowns.
A finsta allows you to defeat these geographical barriers and update your old high school clique all at once. It’s an instant and convenient way to keep all of your friends in the know and share important parts of your day.
Rather it’s funny a story or just a quick life update, finstas give you the ability to share important news with some of the people who know you best without having to remember to text each person individually.
Another great reason to create a finsta is to have an archive for all of your questionable college moments, which for many of us is more than we’d like to admit. Although these moments don’t define you, they sure are entertaining to look back on.
One of the best examples I can think of is documenting the time where I tried on a dress at H&M and ripped it because I’m more than likely a victim to the infamous freshman 15.
Even more crazy is my documentation of the time my nose started gushing blood out of both nostrils in the middle of class, also not one of my greatest moments. Although these moments were considered the most embarrassing of my life, so far, they inevitably cause me to crack up when I look back on my post about them.
These hilarious yet embarrassing moments are great to look back on if you ever need a good laugh, or you want your friends to experience your pain with you simultaneously. It’s also a safe storage spot to keep all these photos and videos for years to come.
Finstas are a great platform when you are in need of a quick and honest opinion from people who care about your overall being, personal growth and appearance. The finsta community is there to provide their unwavering love, support and insight to those that they follow.
One of the best things to do is to post a series of clothing options when you’re ready to rally for the weekend and get your friends opinions on what you’ll look the hottest in. Your finsta followers will be there to hype you up, or kindly let you know your outfit isn’t as striking as you may have previously thought.
Your followers are also there to tell you what pictures you should post to your rinsta. They may even give you some genius caption ideas and offer to apply an edit to your pictures.
It’s also a great place for your closest friends to help guide you through major decisions. They may help you decide if you should drop a class, give you study tips or help you contemplate your options when considering accepting a job offer. It’s an outlet one can always rely on if they need some genuine answers and insightful advice.
Everyone needs a finsta in their lives. It’s an account where pressure doesn’t exist, and you feel free to express all your weird habits and quirks without having to be picture perfect. The emergence of finsta makes one ponder what trends will emerge in the upcoming year, and how long these trendy accounts will last before their popularity begins to fade away.
For now, we all just hope our finstas will remain buried in the depths of Instagram because well if anyone found out about the revealing pages, it would basically be social suicide
