Instagram’s ‘Hashtag Mindfulness’ boom: The good, the bad, and the ugly

TwitterFacebook

Can simply “being mindful” while, say, sipping a kale smoothie, constitute a mindfulness practice? Some experts say, yes! 

But what being mindful means to you — especially when you’re posting about that moment on Instagram — may constitute a different version of mindfulness than the one that has prompted medical studies and attracted serious adherents across the globe.

The recent explosion in popularity of mindfulness is a well-documented phenomenon. One place in particular where mindfulness — or what some people think of as mindfulness — is enjoying a boom is on Instagram. Currently, there are over 11.8 million posts tagged with the hashtag #mindfulness; there are hundreds of thousands more with variations like #mindful or #mindfulnesspractice. Read more…

More about Instagram, Meditation, Influencers, Mindfulness, and March Mindfulness

View More Instagram’s ‘Hashtag Mindfulness’ boom: The good, the bad, and the ugly

So it’s come to this: An unborn baby ‘kidfluencer’ has 112,000 Instagram followers

This is just getting ridiculous. 
As regular social media influencers vie for the title of most annoying, a new breed has emerged to expose the whole enterprise as a goofy charade. Or perhaps we should say not emerged, because, as exemplified by…

View More So it’s come to this: An unborn baby ‘kidfluencer’ has 112,000 Instagram followers

A mommy blogger’s post about her son is going viral for all the wrong reasons

This episode of Black Mirror sucks.
In the ultimate backhanded compliment against her own son, mommy blogger Katie Bower took to Instagram to wish her child a happy sixth birthday, and to lament the fact that “his photos never got as many likes.”
SEE…

View More A mommy blogger’s post about her son is going viral for all the wrong reasons

#Blessed!! Instagram will let users request to get verified

TwitterFacebook

Blessed be the badge! Like some sort of verification Oprah, Instagram will soon give the gift of requesting a blue checkmark to us all. 

Now, rolling out worldwide, everyone will have the ability to ask Instagram to publicly verify their accounts. A “verified account” is one that has a blue checkmark next to the user’s profile, signifying that Instagram has certified the account as the genuine handle of a public figure — or, at least a figure “public” enough to have a bunch of followers on Instagram.

More about Instagram, Influencers, Instagram Verification, Tech, and Social Media Companies

View More #Blessed!! Instagram will let users request to get verified

What happens when an animal influencer dies?

TwitterFacebook

It’s Viral Market Crash week on Mashable. Join us as we take stock of the viral economy and investigate how the internet morphed from a fun free-for-all to a bleak hellscape we just can’t quit.

Four and a half years ago, Chloe Kardoggian was looking for a new home. She wasn’t what many would consider to be the most adoptable dog — at nine year old, she had heart problems, bug eyes, and only two teeth to her name. But Dorie Herman saw past all that.

Herman says she adopted Chloe from “a friend of a friend of a friend” after seeing a Facebook post announcing Chloe was up for adoption. She started an Instagram account for her new pet as a way to show Chloe’s old owners how she was doing.  Read more…

More about Instagram, Dogs, Pets, Death, and Influencers

View More What happens when an animal influencer dies?

Where online ‘spiritual gurus’ go wrong

TwitterFacebook

We all know YouTube. YouTube is the biggest video platform on the planet, with about 400 hours of video uploaded to the service every second.

But YouTube, of all the current content “platforms,” is arguably the most fragmented. There’s no newsfeed, so there’s no central place where everyone — or seemingly everyone — is gathering. As a result, communities form on their own, typically around channels or personalities, and they tend to be pretty insular.

One of these communities formed around someone named Teal Swan. Swan is what you might call a “spiritual healer” or at least someone who believes herself to be that. But it turns out she has some very controversial thoughts on many topics, including suicide, and a lot of people think her teachings are potentially damaging — and may have contributed to the suicide of someone who followed her closely. Read more…

More about Youtube, Podcast, Mashtalk, Influencers, and Influencer Marketing

View More Where online ‘spiritual gurus’ go wrong