What is a Finsta account?

Most of us are aware of Instagram, the popular photo sharing app leaving us taking pics of our food or creating that dramatic selfie.

Urban Dictionary definition

A finsta is a combination of the words Fake & Insta(gram). Usually a girl has a finsta and boys aren’t supposed to follow it. Finstas are mainly kept private and have funny or clever usernames.

The “finsta” is a second Instagram account many users will maintain, and its content is quite different from their real (“rinsta”) account.

Think of the “rinsta” as a public persona, where users will share curated images, whereas a “finsta” is a more unfiltered experience.

“On my finsta, it’s the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s a more multifaceted version of me,” said 17-year-old Esther Choi in an interview with Mic.

According to Brooke Erin Duffy, an assistant professor of communication at Cornell University, the main reason some of her students have a “finsta” account is fear of monitoring from employers. 

“Such acts of digital self-surveillance make sense against the backdrop of widespread media coverage of social media gaffes,” wrote Duffy in a piece on Quartz. “We often hear about employees losing their jobs after publishing a distasteful image or a tactless tweet.”

A user’s real Instagram might have several thousand followers, but a “finsta” features a much smaller following, consisting mostly of friends and family.

Should parents worry? It’s social media, so any rules surrounding appropriate information to share is always good to remember.