IG ACTIVISM: THE PROS, THE CONS AND HOW WE CAN IMPROVE IT

IG ACTIVISM: THE PROS, THE CONS AND HOW WE CAN IMPROVE IT

Instagram, when it was founded almost exactly a decade ago, was intended for the sole purpose of curating and sharing the parts of your life that could be captured through a camera lens. However, over the past several months, the fundamental purpose of Instagram has evolved from a platform where you simply share what you are doing to one where you also share what you choose to believe in. We have entered a new epoch in Instagram culture — where Canva graphics enumerating why you should care about [insert socio-political subject] are just as common, if not more so, than selfies. And, for the most part, I think that is extraordinary. To get more news about IG Pros and Cons, you can visit wikifx.com official website.

This shift on Instagram was catalyzed at the end of May, when the murder of George Floyd made national news, and the dire need for large-scale antiracist education and literacy was made clear as ever. With public education systems having proven themselves incapable of addressing this need, countless young activists took it upon themselves to create and share satisfactory educational resources. Instagram was the primary avenue through which these resources were shared, and via features like Instagram Stories, many of them went viral.

I, personally, have gained a lot from the activism efforts that take place on Instagram; I have saved countless posts containing antiracist resources that I regularly reference, and I have signed petitions and donated to funds that I frankly would not have heard of without the platform. On a larger scale, the petition demanding justice for George Floyd is approaching 20 million signatures as of Oct. 24, and the petition for Breonna Taylor is approaching 11 and a half million. This level of engagement on Change.org is unprecedented — Floyd’s petition currently stands as the most signed one on the site — and the successful use of Instagram as a tool for mobilization rightfully takes a lot of the credit for this.

It is phenomenal that we are recognizing how our Instagram accounts are legitimate platforms that we can utilize to drive a more educated, compassionate and empowered generation. However, since this collective recognition happened so quickly, the sort of “social media activism” that Instagram now hosts possesses several flaws that inhibit productivity and have the potential to deeply harm the very movements that we are trying to contribute to. Through this article, I hope to not only articulate these flaws, but also suggest possible steps that can be taken to dissolve them.

Firstly, we must acknowledge the platform’s proclivity toward spreading misinformation at an alarmingly high rate. It is well understood that social media platforms have always favored short-form, attention-grabbing content. Because of this, the resources that social media activists develop are generally light on text, with large headlines, simple graphics and a bright color scheme. However, unfortunately, this “criteria” for what an activist’s post should look like in order to go viral sometimes leads to the extreme oversimplification of complex issues, failure to consider certain situations in the correct context or even complete misrepresentation through hyperbole. Several “call-to-action” type posts have also been exposed as scams; many take the form of “Like this post and we will donate X amount to charity,” but do not name specifics and never post proof of their donations.

We know firsthand how an inaccurate understanding of the world can harm society; attempting to remedy the information gaps and misrepresentations perpetuated by our institutions was a huge reason why social media activism was deemed necessary in the first place. Therefore, we should be careful not to engage with isolated examples of inaccurate information, as this could quickly delegitimize Instagram as a platform for activism. The incredible traction Instagram activism has gained would be horribly stunted if everything shared on the platform, especially by young people who do not already have an established following, was automatically deemed untrustworthy. To avoid this, it is essential that everyday users of the app only repost resources on topics that they have a sufficient understanding of outside the app. This way, factually incorrect or oversimplified information will not be rewarded with high engagement, and content creators will practice higher levels of discretion. It should also be common practice to provide citations for facts presented in educational posts; this way, at least some of the skepticism from viewers about misinformation can be quelled. Avoiding small inaccuracies will also be invaluable in guaranteeing that people can not invalidate an entire post by “straw-man”-ing one minor blip. A great initial filter to go through when deciding whether or not to repost something is to look into who created the content, and where they stand in relation to the groups that they are trying to advocate for. All of the inaccurate or misleading information I have stumbled across on Instagram has been created by someone who is not a part of the group that is directly affected by the post’s topic (for example, a post I recently read incorrectly describing the accessibility to birth control pills in certain states was written by a cisgender man).