New Instagram trend goes viral, leaves millions of users confused

Social media has a way of triggering new trends and ideas, which catch up and spread rapidly, luring millions onto the bandwagon. The latest: 'plant a tree for every pet photo,' which has seen nearly five million Instagram users posting pictures of their pets with the promise that a tree would be planted each time.

Interestingly, there are different groups claiming to have started the movement. US-based Plant a Tree Co said that it launched the campaign, but within minutes realised it would “grow too big”. It deleted the Instagram post, but the ‘Stories’ continued to spread.

A spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, told the media that “the ‘plant 1 tree for every pet picture’ Add Yours thread was disabled to limit misunderstanding around who authored the original post.

“We’re working on ways to make authorship clearer and minimise confusion moving forward,” said the spokesperson.

It is also not known as to how many of those who posted the pictures of their pets on Instagram have actually planted a tree.

But the event has coincided with Instagram’s inclusion of the ‘Add Yours’ function, enabling users to chip in with their content to an existing chain of photographs on specific subjects.

“With custom prompts and public responses, you can share the sticker and see who responds to it in their own Stories,” said an Instagram spokesperson.

• Americas