Whenever I open Instagram, I am greeted immediately with an onslaught of stories from the 800 or so people I follow on the platform. Some share pictures of their lunch, others of random inspirational quotes, but there is one thing that pisses me off the most: when people share activism posts.

Don't get me wrong, you have the right to share whatever you want to on your social media platforms. It is, however, a bit annoying that people believe they are making a difference by just mindlessly sharing things. It is part of something called bandwagon activism, where technology through the means of social media has allowed millions of individuals worldwide to easily participate in and connect with others in online discussions about all sorts of issues.

When the fires in the Amazon broke out, hundreds of the people I follow shared images of the incident on their stories. I chose to not share them because of the obvious redundancy. Most of them basically posted pictures of the burning jungle, sans any sort of context to ground viewers. It became apparent to me that either people really didn't care about this or only cared enough to press the share button, because right after the pictures of the burning jungles they had posted videos of them laughing and partying, memes that weren't funny, and other miscellaneous things that somehow were now equally as important as the Amazonian fires.

If you're going to re-share activism posts on your social media, I expect you to be as involved in activism in real life, too. This sadly is not the case for most of the people I know and follow. They are quick to post about something online, but they are indifferent otherwise.

If something occurring in the real world bothers or concerns you, don't follow the masses. Donate, speak about it, write about it, but most importantly, actually empathize with the situation and try to make a difference. Otherwise, people will mindlessly ignore your stories just as mindlessly as you clicked the share button.

Sincerely,

A girl tired of seeing the same damn post hundreds of times.