Spilling the Tea... Flourishing Finstas

How many Instagram accounts do you have? Just one? Or many you secretly have four or five accounts that you regularly check and update on the daily?

Finstas, sinstas, whatever you call them, the idea of having multiple Instagram accounts super popular amongst our generation. In class this week, we have been talking about the idea of having multiple identities online and how we create them. When we post and engage on our “rinsta’s,” we are sharing the highlight reel of our lives and the best photos we have to represent that. On our “finstas and sinstas” however, people usually share photos that they only want their close friends to see. These photos are generally not curated in any sense and more like a stream of consciousness. 

I personally have mixed feelings about finstas. I have one myself, and I used to post on it a lot at during my first couple years of college. It was all fun and games, but in the back of my mind, I knew that someone following my account could easily share a photo with a friend and we all know how quickly something can get shared around campus at Lewis and Clark. Even though only close friends follow this account, I know that the accessibility social media presents is incredibly high, and you never know where one image can end up. So, I started to curate the images I shared, which I felt defeated the purpose of having a finsta. Today, I’ll occasionally update my finsta account, but I don’t really consider it apart of my identity.

However, I have friends that update their finstas religiously and prefer to post on that account over their rinsta. They see it as a place where they won’t get judged for what they post or say and they can share aspects of their lives that they only want select people to see. Which is a positive aspect of having a separate account on Instagram.

Rinsta vs. Sinsta. Photo courtesy of Elle Magazine.

In addition to finsta accounts, some people have fan or meme pages where they share photos of funny jokes or of a celebrity/food/dog they really like. This is a whole other identity that the creator shares with their followers, and this type of engagement is different from other accounts they most likely have. Having Lewis and Clark themed spoof Instagram account is pretty popular here, and they are a lot of fun to follow and interact with…

Want some tea? My friend and I made a Lewis and Clark spoof page our freshman year, and most of you reading this probably follow it.

What account do we run?

We’ll never say.

xoxo, A College Girl