Finsta accounts have become popular with Gen Z and millennials on Instagram. These are secondary accounts made to keep their social life more private and revolve around close friends.
Instagram is now looking into making this option a feature for its users with a new pop-up alert that urges them to create a secondary account.
During September’s Senate hearings with Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, Senator Blumenthal asked if Facebook will commit to ending Finsta.
“You’re monetizing kids’ deceiving their parents,” he said. “You make money from these secret accounts.”
Instagram, now under Meta, has been accused of causing mental and emotional harm to teens. Facebook’s own internal research confirmed how social comparison is worse on the platform.
Instagram is now rolling out a new in-app alert that is urging users to “create another account to stay in touch with a smaller group of friends”
It would be interesting to see how this new feature Instagram is testing out.
Instagram would get new engagement from the new accounts from users with possibly different interests than their public-facing accounts.
It’s too early to tell if this would be better or worse for young users. Most Millenials and Gen Z users already do have Finstas and Instagram is looking to encourage more people to make the switch to a more private secondary account.
“We know people come to Instagram to connect with those closest to them and to explore their many interests. By allowing the creation of multiple accounts, whether it be for professional or personal purposes, we hope to give people more ways to express themselves and have more control over the content they see and share,” said Christine Pai, Meta’s spokeswoman.
The pop up appears for users with one account when you long-press your profile icon to tap your profile username. You then create your secondary account without logging off your current account.
Instagram offers the option to either link the two accounts or treat the second account as an extension of the first one.
“Instagram has identified a need in the marketplace for a return to privacy, or it would not be promoting the option. There is a shift, or at least an acknowledgement, that we as humans don’t necessarily want to live only public lives,” said Stacy Jones, chief executive of influencer-marketing company Hollywood Branded.
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