(I never thought I would start one of my articles with the phrase “21 Savage said it best”, but here we are.)
21 Savage said it best: “F*** your main page, what’s your finsta? I wanna know what you’ve been through.” If you’re an avid Instagram user like I am, I’m sure you’ve followed your fair share of finstas, or fake Instagrams, throughout your teenage years. Unlike a rinsta, which is your main account’s refined cultivation of your best photos you’re willing to share with a large audience of strangers, finstas are significantly more lax; you can post whatever you want to an audience of usually ~200 close friends.
From sixth grade to now, my finsta has served as a time capsule and an archive of the good, bad, and the messy. There are many different phases and eras of my life defined by what I decided to post then: cringy memes embodying the insufferable humor that defined 2016, rants about fights I don’t remember that I was certain would be my downfall, funny videos of my friends, and, more presently, monthly photo dumps. My finsta consists of 1,900 posts, some of which I can’t look through without wanting to put my phone and my head in a microwave, but it is still up-and-running today. We grow and we evolve.
As times changed, new apps and forms of posting were developed that shifted the attention away from finstas; Snapchat private stories, Instagram’s “close friends” feature, and platforms like TikTok and BeReal stole the spotlight. Many people grew out of their finstas and adopted these alternate platforms, but there is still a small-but-mighty community of finsta users out there.
Below are some of the reasons why I believe everyone should log back into their finstas and start posting again:
Nostalgic purposes
One thing about me is I love taking a little trip down memory lane. What I love about finstas is that they serve as little highlight reels and artifacts of parts of my life I would have otherwise forgotten about. As someone who has a terrible memory, I take a lot of pictures and document a lot of what happens in my life. Many of my finsta friends are people I met in high school who I don’t otherwise see or talk to, so being able to see what they’re up to on an informal platform like a finsta is really fun. I also derive a lot of fun from flaming my past-self up, so diving into the archive and poking fun of myself is genuinely one of my favorite hobbies. Log back into your finsta and you’ll see what I mean.
your audience just gets it.
This may be a hot take, but all efforts to “make Instagram casual again” failed. Even the slightly-goofy but not too out-there rinsta photo dumps are still heavily-refined due to a fear of judgment and the need to maintain your account’s aesthetic. Maybe that’s just a me thing or a pessimistic observation on my part, but that whole trend just made me yearn for the low-stakes expectations of a finsta.
The best thing about finstas is that they generally are private. You can determine who sees what, and you can change your mind whenever you want – it’s your account! Your finsta can serve as a home for the photos you thought were too risky to post on your rinsta or that Twitter post you want to use to indirect someone. As long as you’re not hurting anyone or posting anything offensive, go ham.
creative opportunities galore <3
One time, I was so bored that I hosted a finsta talent show with all of my friends. It ended up being the funniest thing ever, and the winner received exactly one dollar on Venmo. No matter how prevalent TikTok is, it will never amount to this. I don’t know what else to say besides it’s just not the same.
(This could be you if you hopped on that finsta ^.)
So, yeah, thank you 21 Savage for reminding us how finstas serve as a portal to “the real you”. Hopefully this will persuade you to hop back on that finsta and start being unhinged online again, but if not, I hope it at least reminded you of a better time. That is the best thing a girl like me can do in this world.