Finstas

Below is a link to an older article on what I've only observed on my own instagram feed over the course of the last year or so. At first I dismissed the idea of a finsta outright. However, as I followed more of my friend's finsta accounts, I noticed some interesting effects.

First, the habit become normalized...the more finstas I was exposed to the less weird it seemed. Next, it became a sort of affirmation of closeness. If you someone wanted to you to follow their finsta, it meant they felt close enough to be real with you.

Further, this created norms of what was appropriate when it came to following people's finstas. I caught on quickly--it puts people in a weird position if you request to follow their finsta but they do not want you to follow them; it creates an awkward sense that you perceive more closeness in your relationship with said person than they feel comfortable reciprocating. The best way to mitigate this potentially uncomfortable situation is to wait for people to request to follow your regular account with their finsta account; this gives you the green light to request their finsta in return.

Finally, the more finsta posts are integrated into my everyday reality the more ideas pop into my head for my own potential finsta posts--even though I don't have a finsta account!

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/19/fashion/instagram-finstagram-fake-account.html