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By Logan Bibby
Even though I still feel like I’m 15, it’s not 2017 anymore. “Despacito” isn’t torturing everyone through the radio, Tom Brady isn’t winning Super Bowls with the Patriots anymore, Donald Trump isn’t the President of the United States, and Spam Instagram isn’t at its peak. Spam Instagram, more popularly known as Spam IG, is a community of more casual Instagram accounts, often making comedic or personal posts behind a screen name. Spams or “Finstas”—standing for fake Instagrams, separate from the “Main Instagram”—are those casual, private, and usually, secondary Instagram accounts that people have to make these types of posts that either target an audience of close friends or people that don’t know them in real life.
In 2017, Instagram saw a surge in these kinds of accounts. Every middle and high schooler caught onto the craze, creating new personas behind funny usernames and sharing them with their friends, or even strangers. Now I was pretty up-to-date with the trends during that time and began to follow hundreds of spam accounts, keeping up with the “drama” between people I knew and didn’t know. But, admittedly, I was never truly brave enough (or whatever you call it) to make a finsta. Most spams posted multiple times a day, and I just felt like I didn’t have that much to say. Not until January 2021 at least. Years after the spam culture died down, deep into the COVID-19 pandemic, I finally made the decision to create a finsta, my own little personal bubble.
If you know me in real life, you know I absolutely love talking to people. I cannot wait to skip the small talk and get right to the good stuff. I’m also an open book. I don’t mind telling people facts about myself that other people would be reluctant to share; I feel like it brings people closer to me, and that is my ultimate goal of sharing so much about myself. That being said, during the pandemic, I lost something that mattered to me the most — interpersonal communication. And, realizing that, I replaced it with the next best thing: memes (and my spam account). This sounds insanely corny in writing, but I started sharing anything that remotely made me giggle with my friends and followers, giving insights into my day, and posting anything else I felt needed to be said. Over the past almost two years, I’ve built up my following and am able to sustain daily interactions with my friends.
My transition to college thankfully hasn’t been too difficult. I’ve been able to handle the workload so far (fingers crossed that this stays this way), I’ve gotten involved, and I have become comfortable at the University of Louisville. As odd as it is to say, my spam helped me do this. I was able to skip the small talk with so many acquaintances, give them a glimpse into my life, and turn them into friends. I’ve made new friends by way of old friends and built connections with so many great people that way. I’m able to keep in constant contact with my friends that have moved on to other universities so far away. Specifically creating my account during the pandemic has kept me up to date with the people I couldn’t see and events that I couldn’t attend. With my finsta, I feel so much more connected with those around me, and it has given me back what I lost, whether that is interpersonal communication due to the pandemic or my friends due to distance. Finally, the most important thing that has come from my spam is that people think I am funny! People have told me that I make their day with my posts and that they look forward to seeing what I post when they wake up in the morning. The fact that I can have an impact on someone’s day just by posting every single thought that pops into my head is so amazing to me.
My spam has become a catalyst of communication for me. My small decision to open a random Instagram account to post literally everything has become something that has defined my life currently. It provides me with an outlet to be myself and provide mindless, unwarranted, unserious (and oftentimes, unnecessary) commentary on absolutely anything at any and all times. I don’t know what I’d do without my account because unlike my 15-year-old self in 2017, I have a lot to say. And I’m going to say it for no reason at all.
Logan Bibby, is a member of the McConnell Scholar Class of 2025 at the University of Louisville where she plans to study sociology, political science and Spanish.