While doing the assigned reading of The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu, I was specifically intrigued by a certain reference to a popular type of Instagram account. Wu discussed how many young social media users have two Instagram profiles, one being their "real" Instagram, and the other serving as a "fake" Instagram, a place to truly express one's self. Since my friends began creating the "finstagrams", I began wondering why they were necessary. I can't comprehend why one would need a separate account for their friends to see their thoughts and life updates. Isn't that what the first Instagram was for? Personally, I see it as conforming to the idea that the the social media version of a person is not accurate and merely a facade of themselves, or one version of themselves. I understand the argument that somethings one would post on their "finsta" are not things they would want all of their main account's followers to see. If you don't want them to be able to see those thoughts, are they close enough to be following you in the first place?
Should we submit ourselves to the idea that we aren't and cannot be who we truly are on social media? What's holding us back from posting what we're feeling?
-Maile Di Paolo
I feel like Instagram and the majority of users hold a sort of cultural expectation to only post the super-edited, thought-out parts of your life. I completely agree with you, we should be able to feel free to post whatever we want on our own accounts. I do notice that while users' "main" accounts have hundreds or even thousands of followers, "finstagrams" have only a few, usually the user's closest friends and people they can trust. Finstagrams, from what I have observed, are places where people can say whatever they want without fears of being judged or attacked for what they say, as that is more likely to happen when you have a large, diverse following of people that you don't always know personally.
ReplyDeleteMain Instagram accounts can have thousands of followers, some may be random people or strangers. Many users follow random people just to gain more attention. Finatgrams can be useful to have a private account meant for close friends instead of spreading every minute if your life to strangers, you can share it to your close friends that you allow to see your "finstagram".
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