Singer Pink calls on mum shamers to join her challenge: “It’s a long shot”
Singer Pink is a bit of a pioneer when it comes to dealing with the parent police on Instagram. She’s so very often a target – interestingly mostly since second child Jameson’s birth in December of 2016 – of shaming by strangers on social media.
Pink vs the parent police
Her responses to this mean trolling have been quite varied – from hitting back directly at critics in the comments of Instagram to posting cheeky updates directed AT the parent police and more recently to turning off comments on some Instagram photos (perhaps inspiring Jessica Simpson to do similar under similar circumstances.)
Pink’s recent update is a plea to her nastier followers to change their approach to social media altogether. She’s asking people to navigate one day without criticising others.
“I’d like to propose a worldwide internet challenge to anyone reading this today,” Pink began. “Go ONE day without criticising someone online.”
And because everyone online needs a catchy hook to lock into, she came up with one of those too.
“Let’s call it the MISS ME WITH THE BULLSHIT CHALLENGE. And if it feels good, hey, why not go TWO DAYS. But let’s start with one for the overzealous out there. #onedayatatime #onlylove”
She posted this update with comments turned off, just in case some people were tempted to swoop in with a “but …”
“A long shot”
Her hubby Carey Hart – a parenting police non-fan – was a little less cautious. He reposted Pink’s update with the caption “I think it’s a long shot, but I’m optimistic!!” and let his comments turned on.
Supporters of this kinder tone and the couple were quick to pipe up on Carey’s update.
“I don’t criticise anybody on line or otherwise…it’s just rude and stupid…life is hard enough without haters,” one wrote.
“It’s nice to be nice,” another suggested.
Turf war
It’s interesting that the tone on what was once a mostly creative platform has shifted from supportive to snarky so dramatically in the last three years or so.
Mariah Carey was on one of the first to cop it, when followers spotted a dummy in her son’s mouth. Victoria Beckham was next, getting absolutely slammed for kissing her daughter on the mouth.
Then nasty comments were on like Donkey Kong as mass fan wars began playing out on Instagram with the most high profile being between Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian fans.
Followers basically took over the comments sections of their favoured celebrity, claiming them as their own.
Instagram responded to this big shift in tone – and the abuse being meted out – by giving the celebs more control over their comment moderation.
But perhaps as things descended into nastiness the tone was irreparably shifted – and the comments became follower turf, with all the good and bad that can entail, once and for all.
