Instagram is one of today’s most prevalent social media websites, with 600 million active users as of December 2016, according to instagram.com. The website was created in 2010 and has grown rapidly ever since, rising to become the most popular form of popular social media amongst millennials, surpassing even Twitter in active users per month. As Instagram continues to grow in popularity, subsequently it continues to create its very own subculture, one being known as “finstagram.”

 

 
Finstagram is the shortened, combined version of the term “fake instagram,” which is an Instagram account that people maintain for their close friends to follow. Finstas are usually private, and rarely have more than 100 followers. Many people who have finstagrams say that they use them to post pictures that they normally wouldn’t post on their regular accounts and to express feelings that they don’t necessarily want everyone to see or hear. On “finsta,” people are given the chance to put their feelings into words, sort of like a social media “diary.” Finsta culture has become incredibly popular due to the immense amount of pressure on millennials to have a “themed” instagram, meaning all of the pictures have the same filter or are taken in the same style or “aesthetic,” and the pressure to have the most photogenic life.

 

 
Instagram has long been a photo sharing competition, with people choosing to post pictures that show the more photogenic moments of their lives, rather than sharing their actual feelings and off-guard photos. Instagram is much more thought out than Finsta, because on Instagram pictures, people take time to edit them and meticulously apply filters or use apps to improve their appearance, whereas on finsta, users post pictures how they are, and use captions that may or may not be meaningful to them, rather than a caption that flows nicely with the picture. On regular Instagram accounts, much of what is posted is edited and planned, and fails to bring reality into play. Finsta culture has created a sphere of honesty in social media sharing, and a sense of trust amongst millennials, who are willing to speak their truth, even if on private accounts.

 

 
An article by The New York Times describes finstagrams as “locked pseudonymous accounts that capture something rarely seen by the people that follow these same users on their real accounts: reality.” This is an extremely true representation of the finsta phenomenon.

Spouting feelings into the void, whether on paper or online, helps make decisions clearer, and helps people release anger or sadness without consequences.

 

 
With finsta culture on the rise, it is sometimes hard for adults to understand why teenagers feel the need for an emotional outlet on social media. According to the same article by The New York Times, 92 percent of teenagers aged 13-17 use Instagram on a daily basis. With this heightening amount of social media pressure from their peers, teens often need any type of relief that they can get. Finstas provide a safe space to vent and make corny jokes, that teenagers are in desperate need of, with the pressure that society puts on them to be perfect in every way.