Today’s social media is full of staged pictures and fake happiness.

Pictures are edited and Tweets are made up. Many girls are paid to model clothing brands or endorse products in their pictures.

In order to combat this, finstas, or fake Instagram profiles, are rising in popularity.

Finstas generally have weirdly obscure usernames and are private. Users post either pictures too inappropriate for the general public to see, or photos that they don’t deem cool enough for their “real” Instagram account.

These accounts just perpetuate the idea that in today’s society, the real you isn’t good enough. They show that each person’s real Instagram is just a false persona.

Instead of turning to finstas, make your Instagram more authentic. Who cares what other people think?

Not posting something because it won’t get enough likes or supposedly isn’t cool enough is dumb. You should never feel like something important to you isn’t worth the world seeing.

Just because my mission trip pictures don’t get as many likes because they talk about religion doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be posted.

An interesting landscape photo might be less popular than a Royals photo but it’s still valid.

There’s no need for a separate Instagram account just for these things.

Not to mention that finstas can get you in serious trouble.

Just because a profile is private, doesn’t mean no one besides your followers will see it.

I’ve seen countless screenshots of inappropriate finsta posts from people I don’t follow.

At school, there’s constant gossip of “OMG did you see ___’s finsta post? I can’t believe he did that.”

That picture you posted drinking with your friends is on the internet forever, whether you like it or not.

And, let’s be honest.

No one really cares about your random selfie or cat photo. Those are things that the world doesn’t need to see.

There’s very little left today that is truly private, wouldn’t you want to at least keep something small to yourself?