“Finsta” or “Finstagram”: noun; a fake (or second) Instagram where people post whatever they want to a select few followers and unspoken Instagram rules no longer apply. Kids are free to post “ugly selfies”, silly videos, extensive rants, throw “shade” or share a joke with their closest friends. The funny posts and captions ultimately accentuate each “finsta” user’s unfiltered personalities. Lily Dowling ’17 shares her use of her second Instagram: “It’s just me being myself and it’s fun to have a place to post whatever I want and not have random people see it!”

I personally love that I can post as many times as I want at whatever time, my caption can be obnoxiously long and my posts can be completely random. It is the most creative and interactive social media platform that I use and it’s fun to cultivate an alter-ego which exercises my ability to laugh at myself. The “finsta” sensation is taking over as one of the most popular social media platforms, and it is very often that Prep students will have multiple Instagram accounts. Kate Ramsay ’17 shares her perspective on her personal “finsta”:”@KateRamsayMusic gives me a creative outlet to post silly photos and videos from the perspective of my alter-ego. I love logging on to KRM and being able to share that side of me with my friends.”

The other day, as I explained to my mom for the hundredth time what a “finsta” was, I finally understood the perplexed expression on her face. I reiterated to her that “finsta” allows true personalities to shine through and is a judgement free zone. Still confused, she asked me, “why is it fake then?” She made a good point. When did our personalities, appearance and lifestyle become filtered and edited? Social media put us in a compromising position… Our “real” Instagrams aren’t real at all in comparison to our “fake” Instagrams- is that why we need two ways to express ourselves to our peers?