Recently, Instagram stories have taken over as a way for people to share political and social messages. 

It first became popular during the Black Lives Matter movement over the summer, and has since continued to be a way for teenagers to share their thoughts on national issues. This new way of spreading information can be both beneficial and dangerous simultaneously. 

Instagram stories are a great way for teenagers to express their political views and share information they feel to be important for others to know. 

In the past couple of weeks, women’s rights issues have become popularized on the social media platform. In this case, Instagram stories are useful, because information is being shared regarding ways women can protect themselves from violence, along with urging viewers to make efforts to minimize the amount of discrimination women face. 

It is extremely important for teenagers to have a platform on which they can discuss and promote their beliefs and values. This has the potential to bring people together, as well as educate those who are not as well versed in current political and social issues. 

The younger generation should always be informed on the national agenda, because eventually teens will be able to vote and make decisions in regards to the country’s well being. 

Although matters like this can be both helpful and useful, a new array of issues arise from the constant posting. 

Because of the amount of people who have taken to Instagram to promote social activism, others, who solely look at Instagram as a way to post pictures of themselves and friends, have expressed annoyance with the constant flow of information. As a result, it is common for people to merely skip over stories they find useless. 

While it is understandable that people take to social media to display the best parts of their lives, it also makes sense that other people will want to use popular social media platforms to promote their beliefs, because they likely will get an audience.

However, when people share statistics and similar information, often these details are presented without any sources, so there is no way of fact checking the information. The spread of misinformation could easily bring a large number of people to believe headlines that are fake news, or only partially true. 

Instagram stories have both their pros and cons, but it seems that people intend to continue to use them as a means to promote social activism.