Seven Instagram accounts, and the chaos that followed

For years, BTS operated without personal Instagram accounts. They shared photos and messages through a shared Twitter account and Weverse, while Instagram was mostly reserved for the group's official profile. Then, out of nowhere, on December 6, 2021, seven verified accounts appeared. RM, Jin, SUGA, j-hope, Jimin, V, and Jungkook got their own profiles, and ARMY got seven new places to follow practically overnight.

The usernames alone were a story of their own. Jin managed to grab the simple @jin, SUGA picked @agustd, RM went with @rkive, j-hope chose @uarmyhope, Jimin kept it minimal with @j.m, and V went with @thv. Jungkook, of course, took it a step further. His first username was @abcdefghi__lmnopqrstuvwxyz, almost the entire alphabet, missing the letters J and K. It didn't take ARMY long to figure out why.

The accounts opened right after the Permission to Dance On Stage concerts in Los Angeles wrapped up, at the same moment it was announced the members were heading into a longer break. Instead of a quiet stretch, something completely different kicked off. Photos started rolling in from trips, museums, backstage, and everyday life, but just as entertaining was watching the members try to figure out how Instagram even worked.

Jin soon asked where you like a post on Instagram, j-hope went around leaving comments on everyone's profiles, and their exchanges sometimes looked like a group chat that millions of people just happened to be reading. They teased each other under photos, tried out different features, and were clearly learning to use the app in front of the whole world.

And then V caused chaos with a single click. Not long after opening his account, he accidentally followed BLACKPINK's Jennie and quickly unfollowed her. The internet, predictably, exploded. V then posted on Weverse asking how to turn off Instagram's suggested-accounts feature, adding that the app was terrifying. For someone who'd had Instagram for only a few hours, a pretty spectacular start.

While the members were still getting the hang of the basics, their follower counts climbed at an unbelievable rate. V broke Guinness World Records for the fastest time to reach one million, then ten million followers on Instagram. The other accounts grew at nearly as astonishing a pace, so seven Instagram newcomers picked up an audience within hours that most accounts never reach at all.

Over time, each of them found their own way of using the platform. RM's profile became known for art, museums, nature, and music, while j-hope curated his almost like a small fashion magazine. The others were a bit more relaxed about it, and Jungkook later dropped his legendary alphabet username too. In February 2023, he went even further and simply deleted the whole account, which by then had more than 50 million followers, telling ARMY he didn't really use Instagram anyway.

BTS's first days on Instagram have stayed one of the more entertaining moments from that period because of all that. Seven people who were already among the most famous on the internet suddenly got seven new profiles, and then, in front of millions of followers, learned where the like button is, how the suggestions work, and what happens when you accidentally hit "follow." And of course, ARMY tracked every single click. 😂