The Digital Diary of Teenagers

By: Abbie B.

A new social media page has been created over the last year and it's called a "finsta". A finsta is an account, using the app, Instagram. Teens make a seperate account from their main, and post all about their personal lives; what better way to rant than through social media? Finstas have become a place for pictures and videos that can't be uploaded to your main account (we all know why), a place to spill the tea, and a place to rant about personal feelings and emotions.

Some finsta accounts, just like any other social media, are positive and happy, others are dark and honest, others are mean and angry, and others are flat out wild. A finsta should be a way for teenagers to escape from the serious social media and be able to express who they really are and what they really feel. The positive and happy finstas are what social media is all about, to spread good vibes and to lighten up the tense mood that social media conveys. The dark and honest finstas are very personal and can be used to reach out for help. The wild finstas are pure entertainment. There's nothing funnier than scrolling through your feed and coming up on a video of your friend doing something reckless.

But, there's nothing cool about the mean and angry finsta accounts. Some people have turned to their finsta accounts to harass, bully, judge, and make fun of others as if that's going to make them more likable of a person. Some of them do it for the attention, but the only attention they’re getting is negative. No one wants to scroll through their feed and read about someone trashing another person. The same goes for every social media site. Nothing negative is entertaining or enjoyable to see. Quite honestly, no one really cares to read a hateful, boring post. In fact, if a person's feed is constantly negative, doesn't that make them a boring person?

Finstas have become a really interesting place and many enjoy the type of freedom they get from their account. Not having parents, siblings, distant family members, or random people see what they post gives teenagers a sense of peace. The finsta world is evolving and more and more accounts are being made. Hopefully, the finstas that are positive, remain positive, and the negative accounts can eventually shed some light or just get deleted, either one works for the rest of us.