Instagram privileges certain content, like attractive people, vacation photos, and graphics with inspirational messages. вЂњEveryone gets the same 10 squares, but how you fill it in makes the biggest difference. вЂњInstagram is a very predictable platform,вЂќ Hu explained. The artists sought to subvert InstagramвЂ™s algorithmic tendency to prioritize photographs by merging images of flowers and nature with informative text.ДЄ post shared by Eric Hu on at 9:15am PDT Hu, who previously worked as the global design director for Nike Sportswear, had spent two weeks in June collaborating with two other artists to piece together copy, art, and design for a carousel on police abolition (he purposefully included a clear indication to swipe left on the first graphic). вЂњAnyone who works in web or digital product design will tell you that the carousel is one of the least successful formats to share information, since users rarely go onto the next slide,вЂќ he told me.

Getting users to stop and click through is a challenge, not just on Instagram but for any carousel plugin on the Internet, said New York-based graphic designer Eric Hu. How do activism slideshows go viral on Instagram? By co-opting popular design aesthetics from brands. The slideshows are bold and eye-catching, and they feature colorful gradients, large serif fonts, pastel backgrounds, and playful illustrations - design choices intended to pause a userвЂ™s scroll and prompt them to read the text. Lists upon lists of Black-owned businesses, community fridges, and ways you can help besides posting on Instagram. If you search hard enough, thereвЂ™s bound to be a post, explainer, or guide that advocates for virtually any cause you can think of and likely with tens of thousands of вЂњlikesвЂќ and engagements. But in a time of social unrest, these text-based slideshow graphics have found new resonance and an eager audience on the platform, which has been notorious for prioritizing still images over text. Once upon a time, the carousel was predominantly used for things like relationship reveals or photo outtakes (you know, photos that look good but not that good to be the featured image). The most striking graphics stood out in my feeds, almost like an advertisement. Over the past few months, these slides have migrated their way into my Explore page or been reposted on Stories of my friends and followers in fact, these posts became so popular that I encountered similar designs and sentiments across multiple Stories. Consider it something like PowerPoint activism. The 10-image carousel, which Instagram launched in 2017, has been repurposed by activists, independent artists, advocacy groups, and well-meaning individuals as a means to educate and inform the masses, one slide at a time. The unexpected solution to this posting ambivalence came in the form of bite-sized squares of information. A post shared by Slow Factory on at 7:04am PDT

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