Slime-popping, soap-cutting and makeup-shaving, oh my! Or rather why? Well, because selfies are so 2017, while ASMR is so very 2018. At least according to the 'gram.
Instagram has released its year in review and this year was all about niche community trends, the top of which were autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) videos. Enter slime-popping videos. Who knew that 1) slime could pop 2) people would be mesmerized by popping slime β I fell down a deep, yet colourful hole of popping slime while researching this story. The audio on these videos are eerily satisfying. Perhaps these videos are what bubble wrap was for many in the good ole days of IRL ASMR?
While ASMR won for top niche community trend, Korean pop stars BTS raised the social media bar this year, pretty much winning at everything. When I grow up, I wanna be a K-pop star if that'll garner a BTS-like fanbase like "Army," which was Instagram's top fandom community.
And if I can't be a K-pop star, I'll relegate my life to dancing alongside moving cars, like the rest of the folks who made the #inmyfeelingschallenge, which was born on the 'gram, the biggest viral dance challenge of the year. Everyone from @theshiggyshow to @willsmith risked their lives to participate in the challenge. How you like dem dances Kiki?
Fortnite was one the most searched Halloween costumes this year. Is that because it was also crushing the hashtag game as the fastest growing # globally on Instagram? Perhaps folks thought by dressing up as a Skull Trooper, they'd be able to up their own hashtag game and garner all the β€οΈ.
Speaking of that beloved heart, it was Instagram's most used emoji in comments β 14 billion times to be exact. And in your beloved Insta-stories, the heart eyes emoji was your fave to send to your storied friends.
And it surely wasn't all fun and popping slime. Millions took to Instagram to make their voices heard this year, especially surrounding the #metoo movement β a hashtag that was used 1.5 million times, followed by #timesup (used 597,000 times) and #marchforourlives (562,000 times). Like most social media platforms, Instagram can be a powerful tool for people to speak out and bring awareness to worthwhile causes.
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And last but not least, the "happiest geotagged location in the world," aka the highest use of the π smiley emoji in captions: Disneyland Tokyo!
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