When it comes to Instagram, some users post for likes. But with the new popularity of fake Instagrams, also known as “finstagrams” (“finstas” for short), people are posting for laughs. Or as the New York Times said, “finstas” are “intimate online spaces intended for an audience of friends, with the number of followers purposely kept in the low double digits.”

“My finsta’s on fleek,” senior Daria Mohazab said.

Mohazab chose to create a finsta because of her sister, who had one that she thought was funny.  

Senior Audrey Meyersieck said that the creation of her fake instagram account happened spontaneously. One day at the beginning of her senior year, she was hanging out with her close friends and they all decided to create accounts.

“For fifteen minutes we just sat in a room finding old pictures that are funny, and just posting them, since we were the only ones who could see them,” Meyersieck said. “It was really funny.”

Mohazab said that on her finsta she’ll post any silly photo or funny commentary she has. The reason she wouldn’t post them on her real instagram is because she feel that her regular instagram followers would be confused as to why she was sharing certain information with them.

“Sometimes I want to post a picture, but I don’t want to put it out to everyone,” freshman Chloe Tjogas said.

Mohazab said that for finstagram it’s important not to think about how people would react to your photos, because the whole thing is about having fun, so it’s important not to be self-conscious.

“It’s a way to express your true humor and you don’t have to worry about people judging you because it’s just your friends that follow it,” Meyersieck said. “So I could really be myself and just post really embarrassing and funny pictures I wouldn’t post on my regular Instagram.”

Tjogas agreed and said that for her, Instagram is for big events but on her finsta she’s more likely to post either pictures from Snapchat or “stupid pictures” of herself and her friends.

Finstagrams are showing users real life, which is rare for social media, according to the New York Times.

“I don’t edit or put a filter on any of my finsta pics, just on my insta pics, because I want [them] to get a lot of likes,”  Meyersieck said.

Meyersieck said that for herself and most people, the goal of Instagram is to get a lot of likes, which is what makes finstagrams so appealing, because you can post whatever you want without worrying about the number in the bottom left corner.

“On Instagram it’s seen that you post one photo every once and awhile,  whereas on finsta you can spam and put a lot of pictures out, and people aren’t judging,” Tjogas said.

Meyersieck said one of her favorite finsta posts on her account is a picture of a single  “baby croc” shoe she saw on the street along with the caption, “A fallen soldier…A fallen soldier.”

After a dare, she posted it on her real Instagram. Although some  people may have been confused by it, she found the incident hilarious.

The only advice Meyersieck has when it comes to both finsta and insta  is to never post anything mean about other people, because on both platforms, people can see it and feelings can be hurt, which isn’t what insta and finsta are about.

“If you follow my finsta, I will clog your feed,” Mohazab said.