Social media can be a pretty dark place at the best of times. All the doom scrolling, the unrealistically flawless bodies, and the utter FOMO you get from those certain people’s feeds who always seem to be having a better time than you are, doesn’t leave you feeling particularly mentally healthy. So, how can we fix this? Take out the hyper-aspirational trash and replace it with fluffy faces that will never judge you. Here’s my top three picks for animals you should be following on Instagram.
(Okay, I know we said we were avoiding hyper-aspirational content, but why does this dog have a better hair cut than me?!)
With 9.9 million followers, Jiffpom is the most followed animal on Instagram, and it’s not exactly hard to see why. This tiny little teddy bear of a Pomeranian is always dressed in the most adorable outfits and always has his tongue stuck out in a cheeky smile. Try and tell me you don’t need that in your life. Some of his notable achievements include being in Katy Perry’s Dark Horse music video, and holding a world record for being the fastest dog to run on two paws.
Born with three legs, this blue eyed beauty has a habit of waving her paw up when she’s hungry, and it melts my heart EVERY TIME. Luckily, Peggy’s human is always on hand to film compilations of her trick (my favourite has Hands Up by Ottowan playing alongside it). Adopted in 2018, follow her account to watch Peggy live her life to the fullest in Perth with her sister, Luna, and their Boston Terrier siblings, Kevin and Lola.
Despite alpacas usually living in herds outdoors, Alfie is domesticated and seems very comfortable pottering around his house in Adelaide. With a love for beach walks, nose boops, scratchy bushes and befriending the local dogs, he’s made quite a name for himself, appearing on several news sites. This smiley little fluff ball makes my day every time he struts onto my feed…and has me trying to make room in my house for an alpaca of my own.
If you won’t take my word for it, listen to the science: according to an article from VeryWellMind, several studies have suggested that looking at cute animals on social media may have far-reaching benefits such as stress relief, building of resilience, increase of relationship satisfaction and boost of productivity! Now, do I finally have an excuse to make an Instagram account for my pets?
