Instagram's Infographic Epidemic

Remember back in 2020 when Black Lives Matter protests were at their peak after the unlawful death of George Floyd? The news coverage on this story was immense and reached global audience levels. As a teenager during this pivotal moment in history receiving the news about this story and other Black Lives Matter protests wasn't just from the news. Often users on the social media app Instagram would create posts updating about the current events during this time. These posts would manifest into colorful infographics that became a popular and "easy" story reposts. At first it seemed helpful because by doing this people were spreading awareness of an issue that had been neglected for far too long. But after a while it felt like it was just a cop out. Mainly for celebrities and influencers, if a famous person hadn't spoken up on any BLM matters, they would get "canceled" but once they posted a short vague Instagram infographic on their story, all is right with the world. The problem is people were using these infographics as a chore to post it and then be done because then their audience would know which side they took on the matter. But it didn't spread any good, "Personal infographics often call for people to do better, it is not targeted for immediate action like protests or donations where people come together to fight for justice. It is also not based on historical actions or systematic actions but rather emotional actions for one to educate themselves personally. " With people of influence and power you would think that they would want to help by donating some of their money or attending and organizing protests, but instead they got off the hook by posting an Instagram infographic on their story. So while they did make news stories on BLM topics more relevant by bringing it to social media, these infographics sometimes were harmful to the actual cause.

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