Instagram, one of the most popular social networks among youth, has become for many a land of unreality. Users obsess about every pose and picture in an effort to create a slick, airbrushed representation of their lives. It’s them, only prettier.
In an effort to push back against the pressure to be perfect on Instagram, many teens and young adults are opening up special pseudonymous accounts that offer a more realistic picture. Called finstagrams, these accounts are locked and only accessible by the user’s closest friends.
“Everything that goes on my regular Instagram is a picture of me and other people, and everybody looks good, and it feels important,” says 18-year-old Rebecca Cibbarelli, who has more than 420 followers on her real Instagram account and 30 on her fake one. “On finstagram, you post whatever you want because you don’t care.” (New York Times)