5 things parents need to know about “Finstagrams”

Last updated on: November 7, 2017 at 11:05 am by Nancy French

5 things parents need to know about “Finstagrams” 2017-11-07T11:05:59-05:00 Nancy French

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I was having coffee with some mothers recently, when one confessed she didn’t feel like she had a handle on her child’s social media the way she thought she did. Though the mother joined Instagram to make sure she kept an eye on her daughter’s social life, she was shocked to learn her teen had a totally separate account — a Finsta.

1. What is a Finstagram?

Though you might not have heard the word “Finsta,” it’s not a new technology. Using the Instagram platform, people who have thousands of followers are creating separate accounts for uglier, less attractive photos. This second account is called a “Fake Instagram,” or “Finsta” for short.

It’s such a phenomenon among a certain demographic that the New York Times had a piece on it:

Created mainly by teenagers and 20-somethings, finstagrams are intimate online spaces intended for an audience of friends, with the number of followers purposely kept in the low double digits.

“Finstas are private accounts that you only let your closest friends follow,” said Amy Wesson, 18, a student at Trinity College who has more than 2,700 Instagram followers and about 50 finstagram followers. “You post things you wouldn’t want people other than your friends to see, like unattractive pictures, random stories about your day and drunk pictures from parties.”

The piece continues:

Some people use their fake accounts to stay connected with friends and family. Ixchel López, 18, a student at Wellesley College who has more than 570 followers on her main account, shares a charmingly absurd account with her younger sister that is devoted to photos of lizards.

Principles that guide Instagram are cheerfully ignored on fake accounts: If posting more than once a day to a main account is considered something of a faux pas, it’s perfectly acceptable, on a finstagram account, to unleash a stream of mundane images, screen shots of text conversations and ugly selfies.

“So it’s a place to post photos where you have double chins and look terrible?” one mom asked during our conversation. “That’s what I do on my regular Instagram!”

Click continue to find out “How Do they work?” “What’s appealing about Finstas?” and “Are they dangerous?”

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