As technology and social media consume the digital world of teenagers, when does it become too much? Almost everyone has some form of account or profile on a social media platform. Arguments have been made about how much one shares on accounts, ranging from keeping a professional account for potential employers to instead promoting a self-expression standpoint. With this era of Internet fame and celebrities being on the same realm as a high school student with a Twitter account, people have begun to take their Internet personas too far.
A fairly common trend that has begun to spread is having two accounts on one form of social media. An example would be one person running two accounts on Instagram for separate purposes. One is usually a public account that parents, potential employers, or an interested Google searcher can see. It contains safe, family friendly content so that there wouldn’t be any repercussions for posting onto it. However, many have begun to create accompanying private, secondary accounts. Another name for this kind of account is a “spam account”. This account is private, locked, and mostly only viewed by close friends. These accounts sometimes contain random humorous posts or posts about what happened throughout their day.
“I try to keep it as an archive for myself, I post music shares and recommendations and I have my own personal tags for that. I also do daily looks, ‘outfit of the day’ and just pictures of whatever I think looks cute,” said Junior Mackenzie Kelley.
“I like humor and other funny stuff so I just wanted a place to be able to post things that are unlike my normal Instagram which is mainly the types of photo’s that you take with your friends and stuff,” said Senior Samantha Kennett.
A popular trend surronding spam accounts is when someone will post between two to fifteen pictures in a row.
“I post about twice a day, not that often. I know some people that do it about 30 times a day; I think that’s a little much,” said Kelley
Some alternative accounts are also set up for a specific reason or goal. A new trend taking over Instagram is secondary fitness accounts. People will post on their accounts about their exercise routines, diets, and other parts about maintiang a healthy lifestyle.
However, some accounts hoards frequent posts, negativity, and potentially Not Safe For Work (NSFW) content or mention of such.
From this trend, the term of “vague-ing” was born. This practice consists of posting content with a caption that vaguely regards someone or something, but doesn’t outrightly say it. Vague posts are usually negative and borderline cyber bullying. Since these vague posts are usually on the private account, it is shared only with a few friends and rarely the post’s victim. It mostly carries malicious intent and breeds a very negative stigma and environment for secondary account posters and their followers.
This take on social media is foreign to adults, especially the ones who follow their children’s public accounts. They are usually fooled to believe that the account they follow is their child’s only account, since that was normal when early forms of social media were introduced into their lives. Teenagers see this as a way to post whatever they desire, free of parental supervision on the Internet. The trend also stems from the mind-set of sharing every aspect of our lives onto the Internet for friends and others to see. It’s partially inspired by the potential of becoming “Internet famous” or an ego booster to show off to your friends what you do every waking second. People will constantly keep their Instagram stories updated 24 hours out of the day to keep their “loyal followers” informed.
Instagram has made major changes in the past few years, for the better and worse. It is an evovling online world and spam accounts are playing their part.
Hannah Makholm // Head of Graphics Dept.
