The Fake One is the Real One: Finstas, Authenticity, and Context Collapse in Teen Friend Groups

Abstract

Research has shown that as individuals-particularly teenagers-navigate social media, they value authenticity, typically understood as congruence between their online and offline identities. Portraying oneself in an authentic manner, however, is complicated by the phenomenon of context collapse, where multiple audiences (e.g., friends, teachers, parents) become homogenized and boundaries become blurred. Drawing on focus group data with 20 teenagers aged 13-17, we examined how teens use Finstas ("fake Instagram"accounts) to navigate tensions between context collapse and authenticity. Our participants see themselves as quite skilled at creating idealized identities on their Rinstas ("real Instagram"accounts) but turn to Finstas because they find such performances unsatisfying, using these secondary accounts for active resistance to norms of mainstream Instagram, often through negative emotional expression and self-description. Our study adds to the literature on teen social media use by illuminating strategies teens use to navigate context collapse as they seek authenticity.