Instagram & The Rise of Veiled Online Personas

A picture is never the reality. Not any more. We as digital users are ever so conscious of the shades of truth, of emotional unpredictability, and digital augmentation that separate fact from fiction.

The blurry lines between expectation and reality can be significant. Instagrammers are spending a substantial portion of their lives viewing others' clarified images while they walk through their own realities, unfiltered.

When the Internet first arrived on the scene, we were also given access to a new digital superpower that gave everyone the ability to be whoever he or she wanted to be. If your age, psychical appearance or even disability was holding you back, this new online world gave everyone an opportunity to feel what life would be like in the absence of these self perceived impediments.

It’s a well-known fact that we never get a second chance to make a first impression and unfortunately all too often we create a false impression of another human being based purely on a handful of facts. Many have felt quite liberated with the prospect of not being judged based on certain attributes in their appearance and thus with their ability to showcase their real talents to the world under the silhouette of an alter ego or an ideal Internet avatar of themselves.

The line, however, between fact and reality has quickly become blurred, as some have seemed to focus more on their created persona than on who they really are. The rise of social media sites such as Twitter gave birth to Gurus and Ninjas who thoughtlessly advised users to create two Twitter accounts, one for their personal or avatar version under a fallacious username and another for their real professional persona under their real name that led people to famously assume that their personal profile was somehow fit to put anything uncensored on, since they of course had their business profile to behave themselves with.

Alternatively, users proudly created a filtered down professional persona that would always display their game face. However, we have now matured and settled into this digital lifestyle and realized the importance of being simply ourselves. The key to success usually involves our unique, authentic voice while avoiding any form of pretense.

However, this didn't stop power users of Instagram celebrating the ability to finally manage up to five accounts at once. It’s not unusual for snap-happy users to manage separate work, personal, alter ago and pet’s accounts in a digital world where managing multiple platforms and accounts on social media is almost becoming a full-time job.

Are these latest changes actually emboldening people to take a few steps backwards and live their online lives through multiple personas while keeping their real ones under covers? Could promoting this multi-personality behavior be damaging to human beings in the long run, when they spend hours online trying to be people they are not.

There is the argument that entrepreneurs who run multiple businesses have been waiting for a multiple accounts management feature for some time. Presence on the biggest social media platforms is becoming paramount for a business if they want to be relevant to their audience that is increasingly avoiding the more traditional website for any form of contact.

Our society is now fueled by instant gratification whether it be a song, film, book, recipe or an answer to a question that has blindsided us at 3 pm on a Wednesday afternoon, we expect to obtain an answer within a few seconds. This change is forcing businesses to deliver real value to consumers in record time, whether it is by responding to a complaint on Facebook, or a query on Twitter.

There is no doubt that the introduction of this multi-account handling feature by Instagram is welcomed by business owners. The concern, however, is the increase in everyday users each managing several online accounts tied to the same user, displaying either a perfect version of their life or a depraved one instead, under an unknown username and avatar.

People have been creating secondary accounts to post their “alternative” images unbeknownst to the bulk of their usual followers. Their real profile ("rinsta") was different from the fake ones ("finsta"). Urban Dictionary defines finsta and rinsta as:

“Finstagram, finsta for short, is a mixture of Fake & Instagram. People….get a second Instagram account along with their real instagrams, rinstagrams, to post any pictures or videos they desire. The photos or videos posted are usually funny or embarrassing. Only your closest friends follow this account.”

People have been using Finstagrams to trick their families and coworkers into following them there when in reality they have multiple other profiles under hidden usernames with at least one being the 'true' account.

The only way to be unique and deliver value to your audience is by simply being yourself online. Ironically, this is also no competition as nobody is better at being you, so why would anyone want to be a copy rather than be his or her original self.

I sometimes think that we spend far too much time attempting to present an idealized version of our life on the increasing number of social media platforms and take for granted the power of self. Ultimately each and every one of us can be described as an original portrait with beautiful mistakes but must never forget how this is worth so much more than a perfect replica.

On the flip side, the fact that millions of users are now each using several online profiles representing multiple sides of them that would not otherwise be attributed to their true selves, suggests a growing fabric of insecurity manifesting itself in some type of a debauched need for human beings to be people that they are not while hiding behind veiled online personas.

Thank you for reading. I write and publish weekly via www.Blogbrain.org, the dedicated repository for my articles, essays and blogs on all things business, digital, life, management & technology. If my blogs help you and you'd like to consider nominating me for the LinkedIN Top Voices List then please fill out this short form. With gratitude.