According to Urban Dictionary, a Finsta is “a spam Instagram account where people post what they are too afraid to post on the real account.” This can sometimes be dubbed as Fake Instagram. Rinsta, on the other hand, is a users’ real Instagram account, where they might post publicly, or to a more public audience.
Your Rinsta followers might include distant relatives, acquaintances, your ex, or that drunk girl who borrowed your phone to call a cab that one time outside a bar (pre-pandemic)! Your Finsta followers are a handful of very close friends and (sometimes) family. From what research suggests, and from my own experience - Finsta’s are anything other than fake.
Usually created by young adults in their late teens and twenties, the Finsta space caters for users to freely express themselves, bringing humour, authenticity and unfiltered self-expression to the table (Dewar, Islam, Resor & Salehi, 2020). Looking back at Goffman’s work on self-presentation theory (1959), he talks about our “performance” in the world and the two roles we might play: our “front stage” selves, and our “backstage” selves. These could be comparable to the Finsta (backstage self) and Rinsta (front stage self). ‘Keeping face’ and following cultural norms is important for the Rinsta, and the private side (or back stage self) cannot be exposed. In my opinion, this possibility leaves Instagram as the biggest digital performance stage on this planet.
Why do people feel the need to showcase a curated lifestyle when ‘performing’ on their Rinsta? Is it to fit in with peers, to have a cool ‘aesthetic’, or simply just hopping on the bandwagon? Of course, we cannot generalise and speculate as to why the population do what they do, each individual will have their own reasons and their behaviour will either be highly intentional and purposeful or completely unconscious. Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1986) claims that cultural capital (the social assets of a person) plays a large part in forming the front-stage self and how others interpret it. The theory is interesting in this context, as some parts of Instagram are known for showing off what assets you, the user, might have acquired over time. Eg. showcasing extravagant holidays in five-star hotels abroad, new cars, jewellry etc. This can help users gain “clout” or popularity online, leading to an increase of followers, likes, and attention on the Rinsta, therefore rewarding and validating the front-stage behaviour, and leaving the Finsta (backstage/ true self) behind.
As I write, I feel a wave of rich hypocrisy flowing over my head, as I previously had a Finsta AND a Rinsta (go figure!). The truth is, I found them too time-consuming, so I deleted them both. But Finstas are good, in my opinion. I believe that if it can allow people to express themselves on how they truly feel, instead of posting what they think others would appreciate, it’s a no-brainer. Posting make-up less selfies, pictures of cats and dogs, baby Yoda memes, a blurry video from a wild night out, why not? Surely, that kind of self-expression is good for the soul.
Steps to present more authentically on Instagram
If you don’t have one already, create a Finsta. Try to discover who it is that you are and express that, away from the public eye, just in the close comfort of your best mates. Then come back for step 2.
For anyone who has a Finsta, come out of the closet - let’s see your true self, delete the Rinsta, make your Finsta your only profile, because that is you.
References
Bourdieu, P. (1986). The Forms of Capital.
Dewar, S., Islam, S., Resor, E., & Salehi, N. (2020). Finsta: Creating “Fake” Spaces for Authentic Performance [Paper presentation]. CHI’19 Extended Abstracts, May 4–9, 2019, Glasgow, Scotland.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everyday life.