Social media squares: the newest, flashiest, and most effective method of speaking out about what you believe in. In fact, they’ve inspired our very own Viking activists (all of whom are, of course, Instagram verified™ and sponsored) to better the lives of everything and everyone around them. With just a single tap of your ibisPaint X fill tool, you too can bring a-round (or more aptly, a-square) change on a global scale.  

First, a nod to the ubiquitous black squares that began it all. Thanks to their popularity during the BLM movement, they’ve now spread far and wide from Atlantic to Pacific to influence countries of all sizes and social stratas. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has officially declared racism extinct.  

Gray Squares: 

@800-273-8255 posted their first gray square on Nov. 31, 2022 with the caption “what if u had it all/but nobody 2 call” #depression. Their post was reposted on over a thousand stories by Irvington students, many captioned with “Love Yourself,” as well as on the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI)’s homepage.  

Red Squares: 

@self_motivated_bay_area_teen_!! has worked hard to share red squares with children all across America. To prove that education should be accessible to all at low cost, she is currently appealing her rejection from UC Merced and San Jose State despite being offered full-ride scholarships from MIT and Princeton.

Purple Squares: 

Poverty is a major problem in almost every city, but luckily not in Fremont! The reason? Student influencer @iloinderbinder. On @ilobinder’s Instagram, he has been posting only purple squares and printing them out for impoverished families as his main extracurricular. His tagline? “A share for a square.” 

Orange Squares: 

@myropaniac, who posts memes online, attempted to create the “This is fine” meme because of the California fires. Instead, he accidentally posted a zoomed-in screenshot of an evacuation warning he received. Others who wanted to stand in solidarity with the victims of the fires began Photoshopping their own evacuation warnings. However, because the squares were considered as triggers for the victims, the design was simplified to a plain orange square. 

Yellow Squares: @realinfospr3ader 

Nobody really knows where the yellow square originated from, but it’s generally believed to be somewhere around Wuhan, China. It was brought local by Irvington’s very own @realinfospr3ader, who wants to spread their message as far and wide as possible without filters. 

Blue Squares: @turtlelover707

@turtlelover707, who usually posts photos of her sipping a green smoothie from a metal straw with a pink scrunchie around her wrist, shocked her followers one day with an image of nothing more than a blue square. After receiving several confused comments, she replied that it was all part of her effort to spread awareness about the ocean. #easierthanshortershowers.

Green Squares: @sarah299293838829

Digital artist @sarah299293838829 was testing different background colors for her new artwork, so she posted an green square tagged #greenery. But because of the recent square trend, her post was misconstrued as a climate change promotion, and it blew up instantly. Her main hope, other than raising awareness for climate change due to this serendipitous accident, is that people will pay attention to her artwork and stop commenting “post some real art, please.”

All the Squares Put Together: #worldpeace.

Now that all global issues have been cured, people’s social medias are just rainbows and unicorns. Hooray for the Squares of Harmony!