Antonia Hugo has almost 1000 followers on Instagram.

She is 17 years old and lives in Sipplingen - a village on Lake Constance that has about twice as many inhabitants as people who follow Antonia.

Antonia is neither a photographer nor an influencer, she graduated from school this year.

On their profile you can see young people who smoke, wear sunglasses, brush their teeth.

Cats that sleep.

Pictures from the Berlin subway or from village meadows.

Unspectacular, undisguised.

Anyone can see these cell phone snapshots, their profile is public.

Does she know the people who follow her?

And why does she care who sees her?

Caroline O. Jebens

Editor in the Society department at FAZ.NET.

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"I've been asked several times why I have a public account," says Toni, as she is called, in the Instagram video call.

“My friends usually have both: a public and a private profile.” She used to have that, but not anymore.

But she understands when someone keeps his pictures private.

“Perhaps the daughter doesn't necessarily want her mother to see her pictures.” Does she spend a lot of time on the smartphone?

“I don't have any!

I have a touch phone and a tablet!

My friends then send me the pictures, which I upload. ”She finds the many chat groups difficult.

"Finstagrams" for famous people

And followers? How many does she find normal? "1000, some also have several thousand." And privately? “500 and less.” What she uploaded privately in the past? “The private one was like a spam account. For very close friends who might find what I'm uploading interesting. I didn't want to annoy others with it. ”Meanwhile, she doesn't care. "To be honest, I just didn't care what to upload where." So now she only has one account. One for all.

Obviously, others also find what she uploads interesting.

Maintaining two profiles is a trend that has been around for a long time.

Famous people often use such “finstagrams” (the “F” misleadingly stands for “fake”).

Stars, influencers, models who are followed millions of times need secret accounts that only a few are allowed to subscribe to.

You can upload whatever you want there.

There they don't have to be more beautiful and richer than they already are.

But why do young people also have such profiles?

And how does the “real” life differ from the unpredictable?

A prismatic personality emerges

At the University of Salzburg, Maria Schreiber researches how digital image practices change over different phases of life. Private and public, she says, can no longer be understood as duality. “It has become much more differentiated. You communicate with different groups at different times via certain channels: via Whatsapp with family, via the Instagram story with close friends, via TikTok with classmates. Basically, you hold a framed picture in your hands and ask yourself: Do I hang it in the hallway, living room or bedroom? ”This then creates a“ prismatic personality ”, as science calls it: This arises between the parallels of the apps digital self.

According to Schreiber, how we design our image in digital space depends primarily on two factors: age and platform.

What does it mean to use such large platforms from an early age?

“Thanks to the constant presence of smartphone cameras, this is a matter of course, especially for young people.

Photography is no longer just a medium for special social events, but is closely interwoven in our everyday life and has long since become a flowing part of our communication. “Young people don't know it any other way, so it shouldn't be overestimated.