Instagram and the Effects of Monetization

For a long time I have been fascinated by the prospect of a Rinsta and Finsta. From the very first time I heard about a Finsta I was confused as to what it was, or why it even exists in the first place. For those unfamiliar with the terminology, a Rinsta is a “real Instagram”, or the Instagram where you post things that you want the world to think of you. It’s a version of an Instagram that is very controlled and trying to signal a particular lifestyle or something akin to that. A Finsta is a “fake Instagram” where the rules are much less clear. Oftentimes images will be posted and juxtaposed with walls of text that read as a confessional to the (usually less than a Rinsta) followers of the account. Although it is important to note that the component of trying to signal a particular lifestyle still exists within the confines of a Finsta, but what is trying to be communicated is a much different vision than that of a Rinsta. But what created such a strong divide between the two types of Instagrams, and what does it mean?

So why is Instagram one of the few social medias in which one person has multiple profiles that are so vastly different? This is pure speculation, but I think it has to do with the fact that Instagram is a much more restricted platform in terms of content. If we take the big three social media, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, the one that is very different from the other two is Instagram. Instagram is purely pictures, with some descriptive text to go with it, but otherwise nothing else to help contextualize what the picture may mean. This gives users a lot of latitude to construct their image in whatever way they so choose. Actual physical images are a powerful form of expression, and can be manipulated in a number of ways that is much easier to do than via text. You can construct a particular identity anywhere online, but Instagram sets itself apart by being purely image driven. It also is the platform of the aforementioned three that has been monetized the most through user content.

What I mean more specifically by monetization of user content is that, while Instagram makes money from ad revenue like most social media, the users also have found a way to make money on the platform. Whether it’s promoting brands, fitness accounts, or models, people are constantly bombarded with an atmosphere that encourages acting a particular way in order to make money. It also generally only shows the good sides of a person or the life that they are living. This is the dominant form of communication on Instagram that everyone is constantly bombarded with from these monetized users. My argument is that this dominant culture bleeds down into the normal users who find themselves trying to emulate the fake lifestyles that monetized users have crafted for themselves, and that this emulation runs against what people even signed up to Instagram for in the first place.

There are a lot of different theories of why people use social media at all, but the one that is most useful for analysis is the “Uses and Gratification Theory” (or UGT). The theory basically boils down to the idea that people use social media however they choose, rather than the alternative, which is social media dictates what people are doing and thinking. It puts emphasis on social media being a tool that individuals use in order to find more satisfaction in their life. Due to it’s broad nature, this could mean you are using it for any number of reasons, to feel less lonely, meet new people, really anything you can think of. But the important part is that users have a sense of control and are choosing to use it for their own personal reasons. This is a somewhat reductive view of the theory as a whole, but for the nature of a medium essay, this should suffice.

So if we’re going by the UGT, what exactly are people using Instagram for? Of course this varies from individual to individual, but overall we could probably come up with a few different uses that Instagram could serve. It’s a good place for keeping friends and family updated on what you’re up to, it’s a place to go for interaction with friends, and also a place to find validation through likes. These are just some examples to illustrate what I’m getting at, which is that we’re not all just using Instagram for no reason, it serves a functional purpose for us that we get something out of.

This is where Finsta’s arise from. If we take what I said earlier about the dominant culture of monetized user content influencing regular users, then you can quickly see how the UGT falls apart. Monetizing content is a form of labor where you are relinquishing your content for the consumption of others, and making money from it, thus no longer making the content yours. For people who actively know they are monetizing their content, whether their profile is real or fake is meaningless, because for their purposes, the Instagram they are using to make money doesn’t need to be real or fake. It just needs to make money.

But regular users are unaware of this influence. They have essentially monetized their content without actually making money from it. No longer is an Instagram users content their own, it exists purely for the consumption of other users. Because no one is actually making money from this (or trying to for that matter), and they aren’t getting other satisfaction from it, the UGT is not being fulfilled. The content being posted on a Rinsta feels fake or unfulfilling to an individual user, and thus they create a Finsta. A place where they can be themselves, post what they want, and focus less on trying to create an image of themselves that doesn’t actually exist.

This of course is not to say that a Rinsta is 100% fake, and a Finsta is 100% real, or to place a value judgement on someone who uses either of these things. I also don’t think this feeling of dissatisfaction exists solely on people who make Finstas. I do think that the monetization of social media is an overall bad thing because it interferes with the way we achieve the UGT and creates an atmosphere in which social media no longer belongs to the user but rather the user belongs to the social media. It could already be a Pandora’s Box that the capitalist class has unleashed upon social media, making it near impossible to reverse-engineer, so it’s important that any and all efforts to further create negative environments online are met with derision and opposition.

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