Rinstagram or Finstagram? The curious duality of the modern Instagram user

Behind many Instagram accounts featuring filtered selfies and sunkissed beaches is a second account reserved for close friends and full of wilfully unattractive shots

Social media has given us many things: selfies, shelfies, belfies; this week Miranda July liveblogged her dentist visit. It has also given us online status anxiety, a pervasive fear of missingout and may be affecting our mental health. Recently, it has produced the curious conceit of the dual Instagram account; in which users have two Instagram accounts, one reserved for their close friends, and another for anyone who wishes to follow them.

"Rinstagram" and "Finstagram", then. Account users have their real-Instagram (their rinsta) which has high follower numbers and offers a more polished and performative visual narrative. Think classic Instagram. Filtered selfies. Pleasing photos of food. Drink poised in air, quixotic rural or seaside landscape in the background. Their fake-Instagram (their finsta) is a second Instagram account reserved for their close friends. With low follower numbers (followers are usually kept in the low double figures), they use this account to share more candid pictures of their lives - often wilfully unattractive ones, pulling faces and the like.