FOLLOWING (F)INSTAGRAMS: DELINEATING SOCIAL BOUNDARIES ONLINE

Abstract

The duality of "insta" vs. "finsta" is a binary that assumes that users can be more candid in the latter "fake" (often eulogized as "fun") Instagram = Finstagram account. While the "real" Instagram is more aesthetically pleasing, it indexes an added effort put into curating it. The paper argues that this is a false paradox in the perceived visual and sensory authenticity in the two account types of the same user. In this essay the author empirically describes users’ experience mediating these two accounts through primary research centered around Berger and Luckmann’s Social Construction of Reality, Robert Merton’s Insiders and Outsiders, and Erving Goffman’s Presentation of Self in Everyday Life through this dialectic of so-called fake instas (finsta) and real instas (rinsta). In doing so, it empirically addresses these questions: How does Instagram mediate the construction of self in everyday reality? How do users participate and perform in this construction?