The Problematic Chain Post: Why is it Still Here?
Since the age of 13, I have been very active on social media. In my nine years of doom scrolling through many apps, I have seen many different types of cringe posts, chain posts being one of them. Now it is hard to define what distinctively a chain post is. Through my experience, however, chain posts are typically social media posts that will tell you to repost a picture or video either if you believe in a phenomenon or if you like/love specific topics. Now this definition on its own does not sound too horrible, right? But the problem is that these posts are usually followed up with statements such as “bad things will happen to you if you don’t re-share”.
Examples of This Madness
I have unfortunately seen these kinds of posts on all social media platforms, and they come in many different forms. There are the classic scams, “I’m friends with Jeff Bezos, and if you share this post, he will give everyone $1000. The religious “warnings” such as, “Share if you believe in God. Ignore if you want to burn and die”. There are also the ones on TikTok among spiritual scammers utilizing chimes or sound bowls captioned, “Don’t ignore this sound because when I ignored it, I got coronavirus and my dog died,” or, “Use this sound. I used it, and my mom got me concert tickets, and I got $1000.” Unfortunately, I have been gullible enough to fall for the chain mail examples mentioned. I ended up reposting whatever picture or message on Facebook or using whatever sound on TikTok, even if it was just to save it to my drafts.
Let’s Talk About Insta
But the kind of posts that have irked my soul lately is the ones on Instagram through the new “Add Yours” feature. For those who do not know, this is a feature on Instagram in which users are given a prompt to post on their Instagram story. In addition, this feature lets users create their prompts as well. While this sounds fun, this feature has also allowed for chain posts to make their way to Instagram stories, as users have taken serious issues and have turned them into a chainmail trend. One that I saw recently was “share if you support Black Lives Matter, I can see who skips”. This implied that if you did not post with the prompt, then you did not support causes like Black Lives Matter. Given that my Instagram account did not include this feature until recently, this was something that genuinely hurt my feelings.
So What’s The Problem?
And that right there is the problem with these chain posts. These kinds of posts do not appear to be for genuine human good. They seem like they are another way for people to gain clout and followers through meaningless posts. Using serious topics such as religion or racism as a prompt for a chain post is ultimately another form of performative activism. When people post or repost these chains, it is hard to tell what they are doing it for. Do they genuinely care for the cause, or if they are doing it for clout, resulting in gaining followers, maybe even to troll users with the malicious purpose to stir up drama?
Either way, guilting people into reposting a prompt to show support for a cause does not do anything to help the cause itself. You cannot force people to believe in or support a cause standalone, and a problematic chain post will not change that. Besides, some people may not have the feature on their social media to repost prompts. Even if they wanted to do so, chain posting is a form of manipulation, utilizing a cause or opinion that means significantly to someone against them that might not be in their control. I know that I do not need to post something on my story to show that I support BLM when my activism for BLM goes above and beyond a silly social media post.
So, In Conclusion…
If you want to post about your religion, activism, or dance to a silly sound, go for it. But trying to convince other people that they will be cursed if they do not join along is honestly manipulative and unproductive. On the flip side, it can be easy to fall into the naivety of these chain posts. However, you should not fall for every chain post you see. I may not be an expert, but from experience, I can promise you that your family will be fine whether or not you decide to repost your religious beliefs. Social media has its benefits, but with no restrictions or moderation on what people can and can not post, it leads to a lot of toxicity.
