Should We Trust Instagram Infographics?
How the infographic’s recent rise in Instagram popularity has changed the art form, and what we should be doing about it.
The grief many are experiencing in the wake of George Floyd’s murder has been translated into a new social media trend: the Instagram infographic. In May 2020, Instagram users throughout the United States started posting a new type of image. Selfies with facemasks transitioned abruptly to calls to action and rallying cries for justice, spelled out in fancy fonts and laid over artistic backgrounds. Posts advertising titles like “How to Be Anti-Racist” and “Why ‘All Lives Matter’ Isn’t Enough” which promised answers at a simple swipe suddenly took over our Instagram story feeds. Content creators from every corner of the country seemed to realize all at once that their message was more likely to be heard (read: reposted) if it came in a beautiful wrapper.
Putting aside what this collective revelation means about Instagram users’ psychology (are users only reposting images that fit with their feed? Is that actually engaging in activism?), we need to be asking ourselves a few key questions about the practice itself. Is the Instagram infographic an effective way of communicating information? Can Instagram users truly learn lessons from infographics? And…
