goodbye watcher i guess

SnK Episode 69 Poll Results (for Manga Readers)

The poll closed with 200 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Manga Readers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll, click here.

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RATE THE EPISODE 193 responses

The anime continues on with it’s hot streak, with episode 69 receiving only 1 vote in the negative direction. The vast majority were very pleased with this episode. 

this time the pacing felt quite weird, specially with how they managed the flashbacks. sorry mappa, but for the first time i feel like this was a 7/10 episode

nice i guess.

Beautifully done

It was great especially the confession part hahah

I love MAPPA's takes on the series so far!

Overall, very good episode. MAPPA is doing a great job. 

i liked it!

A little iffy but still solid.

WHICH MOMENT FROM THE PRESENT TIME WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 194 responses

There were many significant moments in this episode, so we opted to divvy up the options. For favorite moments during the present time, Eren’s harsh tone with Hange garnered the highest amount of votes at 34.5%. Not far behind, 26.3% most enjoyed watching the 104th talk about Eren and what happened in Marley. Behind those two scenes were Hange asking Eren why he was talking to himself in the mirror (12.4%), and getting the small zevi crumbs at the end of the episode (8.2%).

WHICH MOMENT FROM THE KIYOMI FLASHBACK WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 192 responses

For the flashback where the Survey Corps meets Kiyomi, nearly half of the fandom (43.2%) were ecstatic to finally see the scene between Historia and Mikasa animated. 24% most enjoyed Eren’s rejection of Zeke’s plan in Historia’s defense. 14.6% were immersed in Hange’s dismay at considering making Historia continue the cycle of children eating their parents, and 12.5% were thrilled to finally see Mikasa reveal her tattoo to Kiyomi. 

Tfw you think MAPPA cut Kiyomi’s drooling scene due to tv lag and later you find out the scene was changed to something equivalent: O__O 

5head pixis made me laugh

WHICH MOMENT FROM THE RAILROAD FLASHBACK WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 193 responses

Eren’s confession at the end of the railroad flashback took the most attention from fans, with 41.5% enjoying that portion the most. 20.2% enjoyed the 104th all discussing who is most suited to inherit Eren’s titan. 19.2% got a kick out of seeing smol Armin chasing around smol Sasha, and 13% were happy to see Levi (and his annoyance that everyone is taller than him). 

Armin's :o face was just adorable! Had forgotten it from the manga

MIKASA REVEALS THE AZUMABITO CLAN SYMBOL AS A TATTOO ON THE TOP OF HER WRIST. THIS IS A RETCON FROM SEASON 1 WHEN WIT REPLACED THE BRANDING WITH EMBROIDERY INSTEAD. THOUGH THE TATTOO IS WHAT’S FAITHFUL TO THE MANGA (MIKASA’S MANGA COUNTERPART HAS ALWAYS HAD THIS), WAS THIS A GOOD DECISION ON MAPPA’S PART? 192 responses

When it comes to the tattoo retcon, opinions seem to be relatively mixed. 22.9% of respondents felt that the retcon was a good move, because they feel that faithfulness to the source material is the most important thing in an adaptation. 21.9% felt it was a mixed situation, because they appreciate faithfulness to the manga, but also prefer for things to have proper continuity. 20.8% agreed that it was a good move, but mainly because the embroidery was “lame and forgettable” anyway. At smaller percentages, 16.1% felt that it wasn’t really a big deal either way since the family symbol was acknowledged regardless, and 9.4% didn’t care at all.

Mix of 3 and last point

Yes because faithfulness to the source material is important and I don't think the existence of the embroidery means that the branding didn't also exist.

No: continuity issues in the anime, but Yes: the embroidery thing was stupid.

1) we never saw the embroidery being kept by mikasa 2) kiyomi could have thought they just found it and stole it from the shogun's descendants' tombs or something. we as manga readers know mikasa is truly a descendant of the shogun, but anime onlies would have thought it could be possible for kiyomi not to trust them. so a tattoo is the best choice

Yes, MAPPA made a good decision. The anime onlies probably don't even remember the embroidery thing anyway. 

Bruh, if I hadn't read the manga, I would've forgotten the Mikasa mom scene.

Options one and two.

HYPOTHETICALLY, IF ONE OF THE 104TH WERE TO INHERIT EREN’S TITAN POWER, WHO DO YOU THINK WOULD BE THE BEST OPTION? 191 responses

The notable majority of respondents feel that Jean would have been the best candidate to inherit Eren’s titan. At a distant second, people would opt for Armin to inherit Eren’s titans (perhaps because he is already a titan anyway). The rest of the characters were relatively evenly chosen.

WHICH “SHIPPY” MOMENT FROM THE EPISODE WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 193 responses

This piechart turned out to be very colorful. Nearly a quarter of respondents couldn’t choose just one moment, so they voted for “all of them.” Behind that, 14.5% most enjoyed the scene where Eren showed determination to ensure Historia wouldn’t have to be sacrificed, 13.5% swooned over Eren and Mikasa’s blushy glances at each other, and 11.9% most enjoyed Connie and Sasha’s increasingly awkward conversation about who’s the bigger idiot. 

I loved the Erehisu moments 

sasha and connie <3<3<3

Erehisu canon

MAPPA DIDN’T INCLUDE THE PART OF THE CONVERSATION BETWEEN ZEKE AND KIYOMI WHERE ZEKE EXPLAINS HIS PARENTAGE, WHY HE SOLD THEM OUT, AND CLAIMS THAT HE’S THE “TRUE ELDIAN RESTORATIONIST.” THOUGHTS? 192 responses

The conversation between Zeke and Kiyomi got shaved down quite a bit, losing the claim of Zeke being “the true Eldian restorationist.” 30.7% aren’t sweating about it and feel it’s something that will be included in a later episode. 27.6% feel that it’s removal isn’t a big deal. 18.7%, on the other hand, feel that losing that moment watered down Zeke’s characterization and would have preferred its inclusion. 8.9% don’t care. 

I feel it will be brought up next episode

I think leaving it out makes the moment with ksaver telling him to sacrifice his parents more impactful to the anime onlies.  

they may have prepared an anime original scene where this is explained, probably at some point. this chapter was loaded with tons of info

I think everything zeke is going to be saved for his big flashback after losing to levi

Maybe they'll include it at the part where Zeke has his flashbacks when he was injured by Levi.

MAPPA ALSO LEFT OUT THE PART OF THE 104TH’S CONVERSATION WHERE ARMIN THEORIZES THAT EREN WOULD BE IN CONTROL OF THE COORDINATE ONCE HE AND ZEKE MAKE CONTACT. THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT? 185 responses

Another dialogue that was axed this episode was Armin brainstorming about who would be in control of the Founding Titan if Eren and Zeke make contact with each other. 35.7% (a small jump from the previous question) feel that this, again, will be included in a later episode. 28.1% feel that its inclusion wasn’t wholly necessary. 18.4% feel that this fact was already obvious anyway, so it doesn’t matter. 10.4% feel that the anime will get to that point so quickly that the exposition isn’t necessary to begin with. 

Armin's motives don't necessarily change either way so I'm fine with the cut. I do hope it's mentioned later on though.

Every episode is only 25 minutes long, so some parts of dialogues need to be removed. 

I honestly think they're going to retcon this so zeke's reverse uno in chap 120 doesn't seem so wild

I do understand that they need to make cuts (and there's still to many manga chapters to fit in the rest of the season) but that one was really important bc they might not explain it fully later on

If they animate Zeke's backstory, it will be there. It would've been nice to show Armin still using his brain though.

DO YOU THINK EREN SEEMED MORE INTIMIDATING IN THE MANGA OR THE ANIME? 191 responses

Manbun Eren was introduced as being intimidating, cold, and generally mean. His outburst at Hange was the first of many examples of this behavior as he lashed out at them for having no good ideas. 65.4% of respondents felt that MAPPA did a much better job at portraying Eren as a much more intimidating figure than Isayama did.

IN RETROSPECT, DO YOU FEEL THAT EREN WAS TOO HARSH ON HANGE? 190 responses

Almost a total opposite from the previous pie graph, 66.3% of respondents felt that Eren was much too harsh on Hange, given the circumstances and their dwindling options.

DO YOU THINK THAT, EVEN AFTER READING CHAPTER 123, PARADIS COULD HAVE FOUND ANOTHER WAY TO RESOLVE THEIR ISSUES THAN THE PATH THAT EREN TOOK? 191 responses

One of the constant questions in the manga since the timeskip is “could there been another way?” 59.7% think it’s just a solid maybe, and that there’s no longer any way to know that now that Eren has stripped Paradis of all their options. 23.6% feel that the rumbling was the inevitable outcome against a world that would never give them a chance. 14.1% feel the opposite, however, and believe there was always another way, and that Eren didn’t give them enough time to figure it out. 

I wonder what would happen if eren talked about his future memories 

There is always another way than violence. The problem is that no one on Paradis was able to find it.

Maybe we will find out in the last 2 chapters, this might be correlated to a possible "the mist" ending that Isayama originally planned

Who even knows? All I know is that there was too much distrust, secrecy and mystery for anyone to get anything done before shit hit the fan and now here we are. I also think it was a huge mistake to keep Eren so isolated.

There's no good way and never only on path but eren choose one who solve the problem

WE’RE GONNA ASK THIS… WHO IS THE FATHER? 196 responses

The never ending debate of who the father of Historia’s child hasn’t slowed down since the introduction of her pregnancy, though the question has ultimately boiled down to whether the child is Eren’s or not. Only 33.2% of respondents seem to think so. 28.1% presumably feel that it’s not Eren, but are overall tired of this debate in general. 21.4% are firm in their stance that it’s the farmer. 13.8% just wish it had anything to do with Ymir and nothing to do with the other options. 

I’m tired of this whole damn debate... but it's the farmer

LEVI SEEMED MORE VISIBLY IRRITATED ABOUT HOW TALL THE 104TH HAVE GOTTEN IN THE ANIME. THOUGHTS? 192 responses

MAPPA animated this scene with their own take and made Levi more irritable in the anime adaptation than he appeared to be in the manga. Generally, half of respondents felt that both ways were effective and funny. 25.5% seem to enjoy MAPPA’s rendition of it more, while 18.2% prefer the original manga portrayal of Levi’s grievances.

THE TRAIN SCENE WHERE EREN CONFESSES TO HIS FRIENDS IS TREASURED BY MUCH OF THE FANDOM. DID MAPPA DO IT JUSTICE? 193 responses

For fans of the 104th in particular, this scene has felt like it’s taken 84 years to finally be animated. And very few were disappointed, with 56.5% stating that the scene was cute and they are content with it, and another 36.8% showing a little more enthusiasm, feeling that it was more beautifully done than they ever could have imagined. A handful felt it could have been better, but was still good, or just didn’t care. No one agreed that the scene was ruined.

DARK!CONNIE RETURNS! WHO DID HIM BETTER? 190 responses

Another highly anticipated moment… the return of Dark!Connie! MAPPA didn’t quite hit the mark on this one, with Connie’s aura in the manga still being much more preferable to manga readers than the way MAPPA portrayed him in the anime.

WHEN CHAPTER 108 WAS PUBLISHED, READERS WERE ASKED IF EREN STILL PRIORITIZED HIS FRIENDS. AT THAT TIME, THE MAJORITY BELIEVED THAT HE DID, ALTHOUGH THE LARGER HALF OF THAT MAJORITY FELT IT WAS TO A LESSER DEGREE THAN BEFORE THE TIMESKIP. WE’D LIKE TO ASK AGAIN, DO YOU THINK THAT EREN ULTIMATELY TOOK THIS PATH OF DESTRUCTION BECAUSE HE PRIORITIZES HIS FRIENDS? 190 responses

Overall, the majority of the fanbase believe that Eren’s actions are generally in the interest of his friends and their lifespan, though to varying degrees (38.4% feel he prioritizes them wholly above all else, while 34.7% feel that he prioritizes them, but to a lesser degree than he used to). 21.1% still think that Eren’s contradictory actions make it hard to come to a solid conclusion on this front. A handful feel that Eren has abandoned them completely and only cares about himself and his own freedom at this point. 

I want to believe that hes prioritizing his friends, but too many of his actions contradict that, like forcing them into the battle in liberio and sending titans after the alliance 

Eren wasn't able to save his mother and this fact still torments him. I think that his friends matter to him a lot, but there is something darker in him what causes all the mess he is doing. 

He’s selfish and doing whatever he wants.

DO YOU THINK IT’S POSSIBLE THAT EREN PUSHED HIS FRIENDS TO THE FRONT LINES BECAUSE HE ALREADY SAW IN HIS FUTURE MEMORIES THAT THEY WOULD STOP HIM, THUS KNOWING THEY WOULD NOT DIE? 188 responses

When chapter 108 was published, we hadn’t yet learned that Eren saw memories of the future and so we couldn’t speculate on such a thing. Now that we can, we thought we would ask. 42.6% believe that regardless of whether Eren saw his friends in those memories or not, Mikasa is correct in her belief that Eren simply trusted them to survive. 33% feel that he already knew that they would survive, which is the only reason why he dragged them to Liberio in the first place. 18.6% don’t want to say either way, and a small percentage believe Eren had no way of knowing about the fate of his friends. 

He said "I HOPE they will have happy long lives". It means he didn't see much.

WILL WE SEE THE WARRIORS + MAGATH AND COLT NEXT EPISODE? 187 responses

With things shuffled around, we still have yet to see the Warriors recuperating and planning their next move. Half of the fandom feel that MAPPA was waiting to put the focus back on Gabi and Falco before giving us this moment. 32.1% aren’t sure if we will get it in episode 70 or not. 14.4% think it’s something that will come later, and a tiny fraction think it will be cut entirely.

Need my warriors back

WHICH SCENE FROM THE PREVIEW ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 193 responses

The largest percentage (48.2%) went to the scene with Hange confronting Floch and the Yeagerists, though it is edged out by both of Gabi and Falco’s preview scenes combined (42% for the visit to the Blouse’s, and 9.8% for their scuffle at the river). 

Can't care less about to gabi and falco, it's the final season cut the filler please.

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

I miss Sasha

No thoughts, anxiety only. 

Hope to see the cut scenes in the next episode

Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm not so hyped for this season anymore. Sure, I'll still watch all the episodes no matter what, and I don't think Mappa is doing a bad job. But it's just a good adaptation. For the anime-onlys, I'm sure it's great because they're discovering the story we already know, but for me, this season doesn't add much to the manga. I probably had too high expectations for this season... (I'm also watching/reading Jujustsu Kaisen from Mappa and I don't have that feeling at all, so I'm pretty conflicted)

The episode was fine but I had a feeling that it was going a little too fast. However, I'm not complaining because I overally liked it. I could finally see adult Historia. She looks different than her manga counterpart. In the manga she was more mysterious and mature, while in the anime she still has cute baby face. I think that the moment between her and Mikasa was sweet. I feel kinda tired of the whole "who is the father" theories. I think that people waste their energy on fights and debates. If I wasn't part of the fandom, I wouldn't even think of Eren having a child with Historia. They never had romantic relationship and their last conversation was far away from being loving. Eren is an amotional mess. He has never mentioned the child in his POV, he says that his friends and Paradis are the most important, so I will be surprised if all of sudden he turns to be a father.

The lightning around eren when angry at hange was amazing addition (I think it's new) and historias situation feels more real in the anime. (ps: hail ponytail mikasa is bea)

Did a great job imo, but I don't think it's possible to make it anywhere near 122 at this point

Scenes were great as usual. The pacing was a little bit jarring though. I don't know how anime-onlys will take it since we do have different perspectives given our forehand knowledge of the events.

Where's shirtless Reiner??

Good episode, can’t wait for Gabi and Falco’s realization next episode 

I wish everything from the manga could fit into the episode or that the episodes were longer.

There's really no where else I could've put this so I'll just put it here......lol. I feel like it's not as obvious in the anime how much longer Jean's hair has gotten sometimes (specifically during the railroad scene here) and I wish that wasn't the case.

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 180 responses

Thank you to everyone who participated! 

o27.

// Random Survey Questions // By: @x-hallie-x // What was the last thing you spent a lot of time thinking about? >> Keahi, my Watcher (player character) in the Pillars of Eternity series. I was just imagining the differences between em in the first game and em in the second game, and also imagining em being sexy-flirtatious with Xoti (a character in the second game), because I’m a thot.

What do you think about astrology/the zodiac? If you used to believe/not believe in it, what changed your mind? >> I think astrology is neat. I used to hate it because all I knew about it were people saying that Geminis are two-faced and manipulative and all this other shit, and I got tired of hearing insults about me based on some arbitrary star shit (as I thought at the time). But one of my friends got me into astrology by telling me about the cool shit like natal charts and gradually I got into it. Now I’m like “don’t talk to me unless you did your birth chart ;D ;D” (honestly it’s just FUN and I really relate to what my own birth chart tells me, and I’m not going to let fun-sucking people ruin it for me).

What is one conspiracy you believe in? Or one you think is total crap? >> I don’t know... I don’t really believe in any, per se, like whole-heartedly. I just think a lot of them are interesting. I also don’t know much about any, because I never did much research into them. The geo-engineering thing sounded interesting to me because that reminds me of terraforming in science fiction and stuff, and also the X-Files-esque idea of alien conspiracies as coverups for more insidious experiments and what not? That’s pretty cool. I just think conspiracies are cool from a, like... storytelling perspective, if that makes sense.

Where was the last place you traveled to and what did you do/who did you go with? >> I went to Chicago for my birthday weekend at the end of May, with Sparrow. I went to the Shedd Aquarium, the Adler Planetarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry, and Navy Pier, and I also ate a lot of food and drank a lot of cocktails. And I got to meet my friend Loki in person after being mutuals for years! It was great.

Where was the last place you didn’t want to go but had to anyway? >> I can’t remember.

If you could be doing anything right now, what would it be? >> I mean, I’m pretty happy doing what I’m doing right now, and I don’t want to poke at that too hard and make myself dissatisfied for no reason.

What made you pick up the last book you read? Are you glad you did? >> The last book I finished was Dune Messiah, and I picked it up because I’d read the first book and wanted to keep going. Yeah, I’m glad, it’s an interesting series.

When was the last time you yelled/screamed and why? >> I don’t remember, I rarely do that.

Why is your greatest fear your greatest fear? >> I’m not sure. I think I went todash one too many times and I came back with a set of anxieties as a souvenir. I never used to get all up in my brain about death, in fact I never understood people who were anxious about it at all. And now it’s my thing. I don’t like it, but I guess I have to live with it, and I’m doing my shitting best.

What was the last big decision you made? Do you think you made the right choice? >> I’m not sure? I have a hard time remembering stuff like this.

If you could have any animal as a pet (in a magic universe where wild animals can be tame or something!) what animal would you choose? >> A DRAGON. A WHOLE ASS DRAGON. Fuck it.

What Hogwarts house are you in? What do you think about the “stereotypes” regarding your house? >> I’m a Slytherclaw! I used to get annoyed at unnecessarily negative Slytherin stereotypes but like... meh, whatever. The whole House system is based on stereotypes in the first place, so that’s to be expected. 

What is your favorite song to sing? How about dance to? Do the DO to? >> I’m going to pick random favourites since I don’t have just ONE favourite anything, haha. To sing: Some Time Ago... by Dethklok To dance to: This Corrosion by Sisters of Mercy To get freaknasty to: Some Kind of Stranger by Sisters of Mercy

What is something you want to do, but you don’t think you’ll ever be able to? >> I’d like to live in a community, like a real community where people know and support one another, and share things, and look out for each other’s children, and make you feel like you belong to them. I just... I don’t know. I don’t know if I’ll ever have that.

Have you ever given something up for another person? >> Sure, I mean, I can’t think of any examples right off the top of my head, but I’m pretty sure that’s happened before.

What was wrong with you the last time you felt sick? >> Drank too much, probably.

What is something about your personality that you hope never changes? >> I hope I’m always curious about things and eager to learn.

If you could be famous/known for something, what would you want it to be? >> I really don’t know.

Do you prefer to watch movies with other people or by yourself? >> I like watching movies with other people! But sometimes people’s movie rules don’t match up with mine (like, I don’t mind people talking during movies unless they’re really deep ones and I need to concentrate... but a lot of people don’t want any talking at all, and that’s too much for me). And sometimes people are like... just no fun to watch movies with, you know the kind of person, where they complain about everything or say “that looks so fake lol” or stuff like that? Buzzkills. Fuck that. But! other than that, sure, I like to watch with other people. It’s fun.

What, if anything, are you trying to change about yourself? >> I’m not really trying to change anything, more trying to adapt to myself and be kinder and more patient to myself. Trying to live by example, yanno. And also I’m just tired of struggling with myself, lmao.

How would you describe your soul (old, young, wise, like some sort of animal, flower, etc)? >> I’m a Singularity! The infinite fathomless unknown core of a supermassive black hole, which could be anything from a single point of pure light to a silent void to an entire universe in its own right. The fact that we (humanity) don’t know what’s inside of a black hole makes it an infinity of possibilities (and I think that’s what it is anyway, not just ONE THING or THIS OTHER THING, but all things -- the Prim, the primordial soup, taking shapes when observed but otherwise purely infinite), and that’s me!

Where were you when you first listened to your favorite song? Did it become a favorite immediately or later on? >> Hmm... well, I know I was in New Orleans when I first heard Volbeat’s A Broken Man and the Dawn, which is one of my favourite songs. It did become a favourite immediately.

When was the last time you were embarrassed? >> I don’t remember. It’s not something that sticks, which is what I tell myself when I do get embarrassed -- I’m literally going to forget about it in a day, so no point dwelling on it. ...I think that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, though. If I don’t dwell on it, then I don’t form memory anchors, which is why I forget about it in a day. Ha! Brain: HACKED

When was the last time you felt especially good about yourself? >> Probably either the last time Hallie said something nice about me :’) or the last time Can Calah said something about his observations of me over time.

What was the last thing you ate? Would you have preferred something else? If so, what? >> I ate a veggie burger with spinach on it, and sweet maui onion chips. Also, it took me like four tries just now to remember how to spell “maui”, for some reason, lmfao. And nah, I was cool with that.

The last time you drank alcohol, what were you doing/who were you with? >> I drank a glass of Rosé yesterday because it was World Rosé Day. That’s an improvement, because usually I just drink the bottle lmfao but nope, just that one glass, and it took me like 2 hours to finish it! This is going better than I expected. I have decided not to drink again until Wednesday (because Wednesday, yanno), and I already set out what I’m going to drink that day and I’m not going to deviate from it. If you want to help hold me accountable, here’s what I chose: one (1) bottle of Backwoods Bastard and one (1) glass of 1000 Stories wine. That’s my limit! Anyway, back to the actual question -- I was just hanging out at home with Sparrow tumblin’ and watching Parts Unknown.

What kind of a drunk are you? >> A... talkative one? A giggly one? A maudlin one, oftentimes. I know the big thing is that people drink to forget their emotional stuff, but I drink to access it.

What’s the most fun you’ve ever had on a drug/trip? >> Oh, man, I don’t even know. There have been a lot of fun trips. So many. One time we took dex and went walking around the Upper West Side and ran into this band performing on the street and they said if you give them a word they’ll make up a song about it on the spot and Sigma said “otters” and Crystal said “threesomes” and so they made up a song about otter threesomes. I’ve seen and felt so much of the pure ridiculous amazingness of NYC while tripping that I can’t even process it all.

What’s the most dangerous or risky thing you’ve ever done? Did you enjoy it or regret it? >> I guess the times I’ve shipped myself across state lines to live with people I’d met online and never before seen in person until then. Like, you know, you hear the horror stories. But nothing close to that has ever happened to me.

From how far up have you fallen/jumped before? >> I threw myself down a flight of stairs once. On purpose. I was also todash, so. (I was completely fine after, physically. Yeah, I don’t know how, either.)

Other than this survey, what was the last thing to get on your nerves? >> THIS SURVEY IS BOMB WHAT DO YOU MEAN Uh... hmm. I don’t remember. :/a

What was the last thing to make you laugh? >> I don’t remember but I also just thought about BZONKED and started laughing again.

What is an inside joke you have between you and a friend/etc? >> Well there’s BZONKED and HOT GATORADE and also hey Hallie remember skagit... >:3

What was the last new thing you learned? >> I don’t remember.

How would you describe your blog content? Do you only reblog specific things or does anything go? >> My personal blog is just... stuff I love, I guess, and stuff I care about. But like, there’s stuff I love that I have other blogs for, specifically -- oedonvevo is for memes and shitposts and fandom overflow (stuff that I like but don’t necessarily want to clog my main blog with); and oedon is for my RPG fandom stuff, my OCs and headcanons; and fuzzbones is for cute shit. And this, of course, is for surveys.

When was the last time you left somewhere for forever (or at least don’t plan on returning)? >> I guess when I moved out of New York two years ago.

What is the most destructive thing you’ve done? >> I’m not sure.

What was the last big decision you made? Do you think you made the right choice? >> Psst this one’s a repeat question! ;D

What video game are you playing now? Do you prefer to play alone or with others/multiplayer games/online games? >> I’m playing like 48479837 at once, tbh. Nah, actually, right now I have World of Warcraft, Elder Scrolls Online, Final Fantasy XIV, Guild Wars 2, Pillars of Eternity, and Mass Effect Andromeda (which I feel like I’m NEVER going to finish) going. I also have save files on Torchlight II, Skyrim, Oblivion, Torment: Tides of Numenera, and a couple of others that I sometimes go back and poke around on. I just really love my video games, lmao. And I prefer to play by myself, because I have a low sense of confidence in my ability to play well with others. But as you can see, I also play four different MMOs, so I’m slowly learning how to get over my lack of confidence and just... ignore the assholes and look for the friendly people.

What was the last thing you found? >> MY SANITY yeah just kidding that’s still lost and I ain’t lookin for it

When will you be going out again and where? >> I’m not sure, actually.

Do you prefer to stay at home or do you like to be out and about? Where are your favorite places to go? >> I love to go out and about, but I... really don’t like where I live, unfortunately, so it’s a real downer. I spend a lot of time beating myself up about it, and I’m trying to stop, but you know... old habits. Also, like, I’m used to living in a big city, a big multicultural city, lived in one for most of my adult life, and it’s a hard adjustment, still. I don’t know how to meet people or do things here, nothing makes sense to me. And I feel culturally alienated as fuck. So, you know. I mostly just stay home. :/

Generally (or specificially, hell idc) what would you like your dream life to look like? >> I don’t really have a dream life, I just know I would like to live in a city again -- ideally New Orleans. And I want to have meatspace friends along with my internet friends! And I want to have money to travel.

When was the last time something about your life changed drastically/what happened? >> I guess the biggest recent change is getting back with Hallie, although like... you know how sometimes a big change happens and it should feel more strange, but it... isn’t? Like, I don’t want to diminish how big of a thing this is, but it also kind of just feels... comfortable enough that it doesn’t shake up my life a whole lot. There are things to adjust to, but they’re not like SUPER HARD OMG adjustments or anything, in fact they’re probably pretty helpful to my growth as a person, so I’m cool with them.

What is one talent you wish you had? What about one you are working on? >> Hmm. I’m not sure. I like the skills I have. :3 I guess I’m constantly working on my gaming skills, and I tend to think that I’m not improving but if you look back over the past 6 or so years, I have definitely improved. I can’t even deny that to myself. So that’s good!

What makes you feel “not good enough”? >> Thinking about employment.

What was the last thing you quit? >> I didn’t quit drinking, but I quit drinking the way I was drinking. 

What is one drug you want to try? With who/where? >> Shrooms, but I’m also... well, you know, after all the going-todash and whatnot, I’m understandably anxious about it. But I’d like to try it with a friend who is experienced with them and will do them with me, and a friend who will be sober and kinda just looking out for us (me especially lmao). That would be the ideal situation.

Has any movie totally freaked you out? What’s the craziest movie you’ve ever watched? >> District 9 did, but that was because I had been up for 4 days straight and my understanding of reality was starting to shit itself anyway. The craziest movie I’ve seen is probably Antichrist, or A Serbian Film, for two different reasons. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was also pretty wild, and so was Mirrormask. And let’s not discount Sunshine...

What is something you don’t like to do alone? >> Drugs.

What about something you only like to do alone (like, something besides the expected things)? >> I’m not sure. It’s really just the expected things. Most things I don’t like to do with just anyone, but that doesn’t mean I only want to do them by myself, either.

What is something you find difficult that many others do not? >> Employment.

When was the last time you smiled and why? >> I don’t remember. I don’t really notice when I do, all the time.

Do you like to help people? How about animals? Which would you rather help, if it applies? >> I guess so, yeah. Like, it’s not a huge impulse of mine or anything, but generally I’d prefer to be helpful than to be apathetic or hurtful. Although sometimes those other two things happen too, since I’m... a whole person and not just an archetype of one. Anyway, I’m probably biased towards humans, because... I am one, I guess. I don’t know. I like animals and I respect them, but what little affective empathy I have is reserved for people. It’s not an infinite resource, unfortunately. 

What was the last thing you wasted? >> I don’t remember. Probably water, like running the faucet or something.

What was your last purchase?  >> The two Zeal & Ardor albums off Amazon!

As an adult, what is the most & least you’ve weighed? >> 145, I’d say, and 110.

Who was the last person to leave your life and what caused this to happen, if anything? >> Sigma. It’s... well, it really is a long story, and I’m guessing it’ll get told in pieces over the course of survey-taking, but telling it in one shot is nigh impossible. There’s a lot of fucking shit to unpack.

What was the last compliment you recieved? Insult? >> The last compliment... probably from Hallie, in a survey, haha. I don’t remember the last insult.

What did you order at the last restaurant you went to? >> The last place I ordered food at was Wendy’s and I got a chicken sandwich and fries.

When you are sad/etc, what kinds of things help you feel less shitty? >> Funny/cute TV shows, music, stuffed animals (stim therapy in general, like wrapping up in a blanket or finding a way to pressure-stim or doing repetitive motion), people doing silly shit or memes (that depends, though, sometimes it doesn’t get through to me but sometimes it does!), sitting outside on a sunny quiet day for a little bit, watching animals doing animal things, eating a good food (especially if someone brought it for me).

What’s the latest you’ve stayed up this past week? Latest you slept in? >> I haven’t stayed up late at all! I’ve been going to bed at midnight and it’s been working pretty well so far. The latest I’ve slept was to about 10a but that was also because I got woken up in the middle of my sleep so my REM cycle and shit was all thrown off.

Is there anything you feel like you have to do every single day or its not complete? >> Hmm... a survey ;D lmao I don’t know

What was the last chore you did? >> I don’t remember.

What is causing the most stress/anxiety in your life right now? Will this situation end/resolve soon? >> Nothing specific, just like... feelings of personal doom and stuff like that, nothing logical, just... todash leftovers, I guess. I hope it resolves soon, but I’m afraid I might just have to... live like this. :T I wonder if there’s a like... chill anti-anxiety med I can take sometimes or something.

When you think about outer space, what thoughts/feelings come to mind? >> !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is the most immature thing you do (or laugh at)? >> I laugh at stupid sex jokes all the time. Like, the stupider the better. “hurr hurr bone” that sort of thing.

Have you ever intentionally hurt someone? >> Yeah. I’m a sadist and I’ve known at least one masochist, soooo.... ;p But if you mean like.... in a mean nonconsensual way, maybe? I don’t remember any specific times, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t ever.

What was the last lie you told? Did anyone notice? Did you feel bad? >> I don’t remember. I don’t really have much use for lies. 

When was the last time you went to the doctor? >> February or so.

Have you ever been in therapy? If so, what did you think of the experiences? >> Yes, and now I’ve got all this NEW trauma to unpack! THANKS, THERAPY!!!

What kinds of clothing do you like to wear? >> Oh, a bunch. I just don’t feel like... comfortable in everything, you know? Like even stuff I like! I like it on other people, or I like it in the store, but when I put it on it’s just Wrong. I’m either the wrong height or the wrong weight or my features don’t fit the look or I’m too ungainly in it or... I don’t know. Meh.

What is something you like that no one else you know likes too? >> I mean, I know a lot of people (online lol), so... yeah, I don’t think there’s anything like this.

What is something you don’t like that everyone seems to like? >> Napoleon Dynamite. I just didn’t like it, but it’s not like... a big deal or anything. Sometimes you just don’t like things. I just think it’s funny that I can’t think of anyone else who doesn’t like it.

Do you judge other people based on the foods they eat? >> Nah. Life is short, brah. Eat up (or don’t? hehe).

Do you follow a particular diet/meal-plan/ethic? >> No, I think the closest thing to a “diet” that I’d like to follow is the Mediterranean diet, but that’s because I love Mediterranean food and the whole food culture and everything. It’s really just about what makes me feel good to eat, what I enjoy seeing on a plate, what just speaks to me, and that’s it.

Are you involved in politics or do you tend to avoid them? Is there a reason for this? >> I tend to avoid them, because I don’t know shit about shit and while I care about specific things (like, I think I should be able to live without facing violence because of some aspect of my identity, yanno), I don’t.... I don’t really have enough rage to like... be an activist or anything. I support people who are fighting for these things! I just... it’s not my thing. And actual politics, like who’s in government? I just assume they’re all corrupt -- not because they’re bad people, but because they’re caught in this sticky web of a system where you’re forced to be ruthless and conniving and two-faced and like... after a while it becomes normal for you. I would hate to be a politician, because no matter how you start out, you either end up dying or living long enough to see yourself become the villain. That’s just how it is. :c

What is a subject you tend to avoid with other people, for whatever reason? >> Religion. Because inevitably someone’s going to start talking about how all religion is bad, and then I’ll have to leave. (But like, my friends and SOs are fine! I actually love talking about religion with people that are into it the way I am, like it’s a big special interest of mine and I am so excited when I run into people who enjoy talking about religion and culture and mythology and how important it all is to being human. I even like talking to people who have become disillusioned with organised religion and have ideas about how they’d like it to be, or even just people who have the same religious traumas I have and are trying to cope. But like... well, you know. Some People, lmao. Can’t talk about shit with them.)

When was the last time you changed your mind about something? What made things change? >> I don’t remember, but listen, I’m a Gemini, I change my mind all the time.

If there was a colony on Mars and you could actually feasibly go live there, would you want to? >> HELL YEAH WTF THAT’D BE DOPE AS SHIT but like can I have dual citizenship because I also love Earth and I wouldn’t want to leave it forever-forever :’(

What kinds of things make you homesick, or do you get homesick very much? >> Photos of Jackson Square or the Mississippi River, zydeco music, certain foods and smells, a bag of Zapp’s from Potbelly, Purple Haze beer, certain songs in my library... and yeah, I get homesick all the time. It’s a real problem.

What is the longest (or most involved) thing you’ve ever written? >> I wrote a story that’s still up on deviantART, called Once Thought Damned, and it’s basically really derivative of the kind of books I was into back then (paranormal erotic romance), but I also still really love those characters and the stories I was trying to tell in my fumbling “haven’t found my voice yet” sort of way, and I still think about them all the time. But yeah, I think it’s... at least 50k words long, and took me a few years to finish. So I’m proud of that.

If you could choose, would you be yourself or someone else? >> I don’t know what it’s like to be anyone but me, so how could I choose? Hell, selfhood is weird enough as it is without this question messin me up xD

What is something you really like - it could be anything - just gush! >> Oh, I would gush, but also I need to conserve my energy, this is a long survey! ;D

What about something you just can’t stand, a pet peeve, a resentment, etc? >> I really don’t like when people make fun of people for being excited about things. It doesn’t matter what the thing is. I just... I really don’t like that. You don’t have to like whatever it is, but just... don’t fucking piss on their parade, okay? No one asked for your downer ass opinion anyway.

What is the highest elevation you’ve been to? >> I don’t know! I guess it was probably someplace in Colorado, though.

What do you think of love? >> I think it’s fascinating. I think I don’t understand it most of the time, and that’s okay too. I think sometimes that love is the exact nature of the willful force that shapes reality. I think it’s something science should leave to the poets and mystics, although science never will, because that’s the nature of science, and that’s... actually okay, too.

What is one food you used to like but no longer do? >> Cosmic Brownies. I used to eat them a lot because they’re cheap and calorie-dense and when you’re on food stamps that’s pretty great. But... god. GOD. I could gag just thinking about them, now.

How would you describe your eating habits? >> I don’t know that I can! I try to eat as well as possible but I also try not to give into neurosis about it (that uh... orthorexia? is that what it’s called? that’s a hole that’s really fuckin easy to fall into). I try to enjoy what I eat. I try to go for variety and colour and fun arrangements and weird combinations. I try to show love for myself by eating things that make me feel good.

Do you prefer to live with others or by yourself? Why is this? >> I prefer to live with others because I’m crazy, and I spiral downwards really quickly by myself. I depend on others to keep me grounded, because I’m not exactly fully... In Reality(tm). I also have a lot of, uh... like, weird autistic issues like the idea of cleaning bathrooms making me want to scream and claw my skin off, so it’s nice to live with someone who doesn’t have those issues and is willing to do it for me. Also, I literally cannot afford to live by myself, so, you know.

What scares you about getting older? >> The idea of infirmity isn’t a fun one. I’ve been spoiled by having a healthy body all these years, the idea of the slow decline is therefore unnerving. But I think I can handle that, realistically, I just... fear(tm). Also, of course, I’m afraid I’ll never stop being anxious about death. I want to know that I’ll have enough time to come to terms with it.

What is one thing you find attractive? >> Vulnerability. (Which is probably at the root of a lot of my kinks, like desperation and shit.)

Who did you last tell a secret to? Or just sensitive info? >> lmao I told Hallie who the person was that I had a crush on but didn’t want to mention in the survey I’d taken. :p

What kind of blogs do you follow? >> Man I follow almost 900 blogs, I don’t even know where to begin. (I used to follow around 1200, so that’s actually a conservative number for me.)

Have you made any good friends online? How long have you known them? >> Sure, I suppose I could say that. I’ve had some mutuals for anywhere from 6 months to like 4+ years. And there’s Elle, who I’ve known since my VF days, so since 2009. Almost ten years!

What is something really weird/embarrassing that you’ve done? >> I tried to use one of those menstrual cup things once and then I couldn’t get it out and I had a meltdown in the bathroom and Sigma had to come take it out for me. That’s the first thing that came to mind, lmao. I fucking hate those things with a violent passion and I will never use one again.

What about something you’ve done that sounds too wild to believe? >> I had a one-night stand with Aur-elio Vol/taire. (I put the slash and dash in to keep his name out of searches, lmao.)

What does it mean to you to trust someone? >> I guess that I give them the tools to hurt me with the faith that they won’t use those tools in that way (not intentionally anyway -- so I also have the faith that if they do hurt me, it’s probably unintentional and I should at least give them a chance to explain themselves). Or something like that.

What was the last thing you drank? >> Water.

What’s the weather doing where you are? >> It’s cool and cloudy.

What was the last thing to go completely wrong? >> Oh man I tried to make this fuckin flapjack cup microwave thing last week sometime and I put water in it instead of milk by accident and it just came out so bad. (It says water OR milk but let me tell you, it means JUST MILK, anything else is GROSS)

What kinds of things do you like to talk about? >> I can’t think of too many things I don’t like to talk about. I just don’t like to talk about some things with just anyone.

What was the last thing someone made fun of you for? >> I don’t remember. Probably Sparrow making fun of me for being a thirsty binch.

Name a book or movie from childhood that holds a special place in your heart? >> The Phantom Tollbooth.

What are some of your favorite words/word meanings? >> My mind is starting to melt lmao I don’t want to think this hard

When was the last time you procrastinated something? >> I procrastinated vacuuming and then I just straight up forgot to do it at all.

What mood/attitude do you tend to have when taking surveys, or does it vary? >> Usually I’m just... chill, like I usually am.

Has another survey-taker ever bitched you out for one of your answers?  >> Probably, in the past when the survey-taking crowd was a little more incestuous.

Have you ever bitched anyone out for theirs? >> No, that’s just rude.

How did you celebrate the most recent holiday? >> I don’t celebrate Memorial Day lmao fuck that it was MY BIRTHDAY and THAT’S IT

How does your birthday make you feel? >> Pretty good, usually.

How would you describe your relationship with your parents? Has it always been this way? >> I never knew my mother (she tried to visit a few times but she didn’t seem to want to know who I was, really, and I’m pretty sure at least one of those visits was just a ploy to try to get back in bed with my dad or something), and my relationship with my father has been tempestuous and not entirely great at times because he was not very compassionate and I was a seething bundle of traumas and emotional neglect but I still love and appreciate him. Unfortunately I’ve lost contact with him and I don’t know how to regain it, so that’s that, I guess.

What is the longest amount of time you’ve spent alone (or mostly alone, since this is the age of the internet and all, hah)? >> I’m not sure. I mean, I lived alone for almost a year (2009) with minimal outside contact and that was... hell... but like... normally I’m never alone for that long.

What was the last thing you asked for help with?  >> I don’t remember. But I finished this survey! It was very good. c:

InstaThumbs Review Explode Your Youtube Views By 374%

https://kiwireviewz.com/instathumbs-review/Howdy,

At this point you may have understood the intensity of utilizing a decent thumbnail and how it can help video perspectives and increment deals.

In any case, on the off chance that it is so natural, at that point for what reason isn't everybody utilizing custom thumbnails?

You can utilize programming like Photoshop to make thumbnails however it is overly hard and exhausting. There is such an immense expectation to learn and adapt, that it doesn't bode well to contribute so much time and cash (did you know Photoshop $500 coincidentally).

Recruiting a planner or a specialist is another choice. However, when I attempted it, I got cites from $5 to $260 for a straightforward thumbnail. This would be alright on the off chance that you needed to do one video, however in case you're making recordings day by day, that can turn out to be expensive rapidly.

Be that as it may, don't stress, with InstaThumbs, presently it is neither troublesome nor expensive.

Energized? It would be ideal if you look at my InstaThumbs survey for more data!

InstaThumbs Review – Overview

diagram

Creator San Kumar

Product InstaThumbs

Dispatch Date 2020-Apr-15

Dispatch Time 11:00 EST

Official website Click here (Discount Link)

Front-End Price $37

Refund 30 Days Money-Back Guarantee

Bonuses Yes, Huge Bonuses

Skill All Levels

Niche Software

Support еffесtіvе Rеѕроnѕе

Recommend Highly prescribe!

What Is InstaThumbs?

InstaThumbs is a superbimage altering instrument that accompanies instant thumbnail layouts to strikingly pull in more YouTube crowds like a master paying little heed to your expertise level.

This is most likely "the least demanding deal" you'll ever make as an associate! This is the product that each video advertiser needs. In the event that you have ever advanced a video creator application or have endorsers that affection video advertising items, at that point InstaThumbs will sell itself!

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About The Creator

InstaThumbs Review Creator

Behind InstaThumbs are San Kumar, Rachna Richa and Ganesh Sathyanathan. San Kumar represents considerable authority in building, overseeing, and scaling organizations and discovering benefit and openings where others fall flat. He has helped several independent company with advanced promoting and transformation improvement.

He is likewise a virtuoso coder and has been portrayed as the "escape clause discoverer" in light of his YouTube ability and for discovering many techniques to benefit from the YouTube calculations. Presently, we should take a gander at the following piece of this InstaThumbs Review and discover its highlights.

InstaThumbs Review – Key Features

Speedy recap of what you get with InstaThumbs

Thumbnail explicit highlights like sticker impacts, callouts, inclination content, emoticons, and so on

Expertly planned thumbnail formats

Inbuilt picture search with a huge number of pictures

1-click sticker and shadow impacts

High differentiation eye-getting foundations intended for Youtube

Capacity to utilize your own textual styles

Colossal library of emoticons, shapes and stickers

Slope content and callouts

Make pictures into roundabout, pentagon or some other shape

Many channels and picture impacts

We should investigates the subtleties!

Overly simple drag-n-drop thumbnail maker with zero expectation to absorb information.

Simply select a thumbnail layout. Alter content and pictures and download your thumbnail. It's actually that simple!

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Several creator layouts

Consultants will charge you anything from $5 to $50 to make thumbnails utilizing comparable layouts. Be that as it may, presently you can do it for nothing and make the same number of thumbnails as you need.

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Sticker and shadow impacts

Make sticker and shadow impacts utilized by Top Youtubers with only a solitary snap. Make your recordings hang out in the query items.

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A large number of pictures with our inbuilt picture search

Search a huge number of pictures from destinations like Pixabay, Pexels, Bing pictures and Google pictures in a hurry to make your ideal thumbnail.

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Slope content and callouts

Each thumbnail needs some content. Presently include eye-popping angle content and callouts to make your thumbnails much increasingly alluring.

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Utilize your own textual styles

Online editors are commonly restricted with regards to text style decisions. Be that as it may, with Instathumbs you can pick any Google textual style you like to suit your image.

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Expertly made Youtube foundations

Several very appealing expertly structured foundation that will get the watcher's consideration. They have been uniquely made to build differentiate in your thumbnails.

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Many symbols, emoticons and shapes

Make your thumbnails increasingly alluring and release your innovativeness with many packaged symbols, emoticons and shapes.

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Make thumbnail content stick out

With unique content impacts, fringes and callouts make a point to catch additional eye to the content inside your thumbnails,. This extraordinarily expands your navigate rates!

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Your pictures would now be able to be roundabout, pentagon or some other shape

Have you at any point seen the thumbnails of top YouTubers? They never utilize straightforward rectangular pictures and now you don't need to as well! With InstaThumbs you can transform any picture into any shape.

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HD Quality Thumbnail Download

A great deal of administrations give you thumbnail goals like 640 x 480 or 800 x 600. This may work for cell phone yet such goals look like poo on huge showcases. Instathumbs gives you fresh HD 1080p thumbnails.

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For more data about this item, click the catch beneath:

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How Can It Work?

There are 3 stages so your work will show its best with the assistance of InstaThumbs:

Stage 1: Log In InstaThumbs Dashboard

InstaThumbs Review Step 1

Stage 2: Choose A Template

InstaThumbs Review Step 2

Stage 3: Add Text, Effects, Color, Background, and so forth and Download Your Work

InstaThumbs Review Step 3

How about we check the demo video underneath to see it in real life:

InstaThumbs Review – Pricing

InstaThumbs has 1 Front-end and 3 OTOs:

Front-end: InstaThumbs ($37)

Exceptional one-time prompt riser estimating. Instathumbs will be a month to month membership however they are offering it to you at a Special One-Time Cost at this moment (counting business use)

thumbnail-blaster-survey cost

OTO 1: Template Club ($144/year) ($27/Month)

100 prepared to-utilize architect thumbnail formats each month

Layouts for all kind of recordings including Video Marketing, How To Guides, Product Reviews, Vlogs, Shopping, Funny, Gaming, and so forth.

Thumbnail layouts structured by proficient visual craftsman who has gone through months investigating and making best traffic creating thumbnails.

OTO 2: Article Video Robot ($197/year)

Programming that turns any article, watchword or URL into a shocking live talking video with voice-over, designs and activity in a single tick!

World's sole A.I. Video creation application

Make drawing in recordings for any specialty or theme in 1 moment!

Business use permitted: Profit from Your Videos Or Sell Them.

OTO3: InstaThumbs 14-Day Trial ($1)

Note:

Here are some Upgrade joins for your reference. You should purchase the Front-End (FE) right off the bat and afterward you could purchase any OTOs on the off chance that you love.

In the event that you purchase OTOs alone, you will get NOTHING and it requires some investment to demand for discount. It would be ideal if you recollect FE is an absolute necessity have bundle to in any event ensure the item is functioning admirably.

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Is It Worth Buying?

Did you realize that consultants charge $5 to $200 to make a solitary thumbnail?

With InstaThumbs you can make boundless HD quality thumbnails like an expert creator to help your youtube sees! There is no month to month charges, zero expectation to absorb information and you can prepare your next thumbnail before you can even discover a person on fiverr to do it for you.

Here are some screen captures from a mainstream independent site called fiverr, where architects are charging an arm and leg for something very similar:

thumbnail-blaster-audit why

Coincidentally.. here is a thought! Since you also are a genius thumbnail planner with InstaThumbs, why not post your own gig like these folks? Simply think… on the off chance that you sell every thumbnail for $5 a fly, with only 3 deal a day, you're as of now clearing Up To $450 per month..

InstaThumbs versus Other Thumbnail Makers

InstaThumbs is intended to make snappy interactive thumbnails for your recordings. Other programming like Photoshop, Canva, and so on are universally useful and not explicitly intended for making thumbnails and here is the reason..

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♦ Let's investigate focal points and impediments of InstaThumbs:

PROS CONS

100% Newbie Friendly

No aptitudes and encounters required

Make Attractive Video Thumbnails For Any Video Using Simple Drag and Drop

Lift Your Video Views And Increase Conversions

100+ Ready Made Templates For All Top Niches

Make Unlimited Thumbnails. No Monthly Fees

Business Use License Included

30 Day Money Back Guarantee

Up until now, there is none

What top YouTubers need to state about InstaThumbs..

From top Youtubers, to Video Marketers to entrepreneurs, everybody utilizes and suggests InstaThumbs.

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As often as possible Asked Questions

Is this a Cloud-Based software?

Truly, it is a cloud based arrangement.

Everything is facilitated on our servers, nothing to download or introduce.

You can utilize our product from your work area PC, Apple or even from your advanced mobile phone.

Do I get free updates for InstaThumbs?

Truly! You get 100% free auto refreshes.

At whatever point another update is out, since everything is put away in the cloud, you will quickly be overhauled.

You don't have to stress over checking physically for refreshes, everything is done 100% consequently, bother free.

Do I need some other programming?

No, you get all that you have to make stunning thumbnails for your recordings.

Notwithstanding that you likewise get a stock library of a great many pictures, stickers and content impacts which you can use in your thumbnails.

Read more:

https://kiwireviewz.com/instathumbs-review/

https://kiwireviewz.com/

Venture Ketogenic Accelerator In Kenya- Is Healthy Weight Loss Solution A Weight Management System?

In this text we are going to pass behind the curtain and find out how the search for monavie screen were given began. you're going to study what stimulated the business enterprise to pick weight reduction as their next product line so one can create more wealth for his or her distributors and set the organisation other than every other organisation inside the global.

Find out what the Venture Ketogenic Accelerator Review is all approximately and what makes this extraordinary from the myriad of weight reduction programs already he market. Is there certainly a healthy manner to shed pounds and keep it off? Does monavie honestly have the solution the sector has been awaiting? Is rvl healthful weight reduction answer a weight control machine?

Dr. Bernie landis, president of the scientific advisory board for monavie was instrumental in developing the brand new weight control solution device, display. The whole concept turned into to create the most revolutionary and powerful gadget that ever has been delivered to the market to help the tens of millions of obese folks that are struggling to lose weight and/or devour more healthy.

This could create another explosive wave for monavie distributors. if you have a community already in vicinity, you get an instant pay enhance every time a new product comes out, because maximum distributors are going to reserve the brand new product, in addition to those they already order, due to the fact they love them and that they paintings.

The organization sent out a survey and asked what will be the vendors' options for a new product line. Survey says weight reduction! Did you recognize over seventy seven% of american citizens are considered overweight? That is a large marketplace share for monavie vendors to move after.

How did the search for screen get started?

The monavie scientists scoured the earth on the lookout for the high-quality ingredients. They certainly checked out each food, every food ingredient, concentrate, botanicals, and every compound that they thought may want to likely play an vital position in weight loss.

The aim changed into to create a system of merchandise in order to certainly offer the finest quantity of nutrients with the fewest amount of energy. sounds like a winner to me. Even people who are not interested by dropping weight are going to benefit with the aid of ingesting this delicious shake or by consuming a snack bar.

In preference to consuming sodium-laden canned meals or processed lunch meats for lunch, you can deal with your self to a nutritious, scrumptious shake and/or snack bar. Why drink a can of make certain, when you may drink some thing this is virtually wholesome for you and will taste tremendous?

The gadget has three additives:

A canister of scrumptious shake mix

Convenient, easy to use, blend with water, milk, throw some fruit in for versions

A delicious nutritious snack bar

A fruity, chewy bar with yogurt coating

A nutritional supplement

Focused to offer finest nutrient density

Extremely-attention of the meals that were located to be the most useful in accomplishing and retaining healthful weight lengthy-term

Essentially out of all of the research already done, they have confirmed lengthy-term benefits from a healthy food regimen were based on getting the finest nutrient density with the least amount of energy associated with the products. With this device your body could be getting nutrients that it isn't always generally entering into your daily weight loss plan. There are extra vitamins in line with calorie than every other meals or product inside the market.

Venture Ketogenic Accelerator Pills is inside the commercial enterprise of making waves. Venture Ketogenic Accelerator weight management system goes to put them in primary opposition with the big boys who already have a share of the weight loss marketplace. Step aside, jenny craig, weight watchers, and nutrisystem! There is a brand new kid at the block.

They have got even designed a personal weight management website wherein you may song your each day food consumption, exercise, weight, and measurements. anybody desires to have the gain of properly health. now not handiest is this going to taste great, it is right for you furthermore may.

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Here’s Really Why Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is taking off

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Here’s Really Why Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is taking off

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is back with a bang.

For sure it is bitcoin that has led the market higher but its 20% leap pales beside the gigantic strides of Bitcoin Cash, 84% the better this past week at $305.

In the same way that analysts and investors have been struggling to find a reason to explain the timing of bitcoin’s breakout, so too has the head scratching been in evidence with the price movement of Bitcoin Cash, witnessed in its near-doubling in value since 1 April.

The successful launch of the simple ledger protocol for creating tokens on the BCH blockchain has been cited as a catalyst as well as the pop in BCH futures trading on Kraken.

Also lending a helping hand may have been bitcoin.travel, which now also accepts BCH, in addition to just bitcoin previously, if you are looking to book a flight with crypto.

But that’s hardly enough to explain the stellar price performance of BCH. The bitcoin.travel part is especially unconvincing, given that it also added five other crypto to its roster of accepted cryptocurrency  – Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ethereum Classic, and Dash.

Ok, if none of that is convincing enough to explain the ongoing pump then perhaps it is the unique mandatory upgrade road map that the BCH dev community has instigated. Bitcoin Cash upgrades every six months, with the next batch of changes due in May.

At first brush baking in six-monthly network upgrades seemed something of a gimmick or perhaps an ideologically driven gambit to emphasise BCH’s ease of upgradeability in contrast to the slow pace of development seen in the bitcoin dev community with its notoriously ponderous governance.

Schnorr is welcome but not the price booster

But it is not likely that the buyers since Monday 1 April were primarily driven by the prospect of software changes such as Schnorr signatures coming to the BCH blockchain, welcome though that is.

Certainly, it should be noted that Schnorr is not as insignificant as some would have you believe and is surely another feather in the BCH hat in contradistinction to bitcoin, where Schnorr has been much discussed but failed to arrive, as yet.

Schnorr signatures will free up space as SegWit did, but it will also bring into play the ability to make transaction information private. Whereas the old ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) signatures required the sender to sign each transaction, with Schnorr aggregation is possible so that just one signature can be used by a bunch of collaborating senders.

So Schnorr is most welcome but in and of itself does not explain the 84%% gain either.

BCH survives the hard fork near-death event

At the top we said that Bitcoin Cash is back. Well, it is back in the way that the entire market is back, if this is the beginning of a new bull market.

But BCH is also back in another perhaps more significant sense.

Crypto watchers will recall when BCH had a near-death experience in November 2018. Many will remember that date as the moment when the hard fork of its blockchain triggered the crash in the wider market, pushing bitcoin below $6,000.

Bitcoin Cash, itself of course a fork from bitcoin, split into ABC (today known by most of the world as Bitcoin Cash and SV (BSV), and while at first there was a tussle between the two to see which chain would grab the most hash power, a clear winner did eventually emerge.

Despite the best efforts of Craig Wright and his nChain team and the dollar muscle of billionaire Calvin Ayre, the direction of travel since January has been clear: BCHABC is the winner.

The past week has made that definite, as it left BSV behind in the dust, to currently trade at $305 compared to BCH’s $84.

Sure, BSV still made a 30% gain which outperforms bitcoin, but it is a long way behind the 83% appreciation in the BCH price.

BCH has left BSV in the dust

For those still interested in keeping up with these things, the node count on BSV’s chain is only 438 to BCH’s 821.

So pulling ahead decisively ahead of BSV is good for BCH but that was something that, as we said, had been the likely outcome since January, if not before.

Asia still in love with BCH

Then there’s the Asia angle.

Ever since the birth of Bitcoin Cash, rooted as it was in the internecine warfare that broke out in the bitcoin development fight over those pushing the SegWit upgrade and the rival camp’s belief that radical scaling solutions were urgently required, which they insisted meant raising the block size – hence the BCH fork.

In the BCH camp, outside of the likes of Roger Ver (aka Bitcoin Jesus) and his bitcoin.com site and mining pool, were the Chinese companies such as Bitmain that had come to dominate mining and who it was claimed wanted to make a success of BCH at bitcoin’s expense.

Less political observers argued that Asia’s more advanced mobile payments ecosystem was driving the push for BCH with the US consumers lagging behind, still in the habit of handing over their card to a merchant.

For crypto enthusiasts in high-tech countries such as South Korea the scaling question at the time was more pressing.

The fact that the bitcoin rally began when the Asian market was awake is significant because Bitcoin Cash has for long time been a favourite. The finger behind the three 7,000 BTC algo trades is not known but for our argument that doesn’t matter although the timing points to Asian provenance.

As bitcoin jumped, the BCH fans took the opportunity to scream party on, and they put their won, yen and maybe yuan (or BTC) where their mouths were, helping to propel BCH into fifth place in the market cap rankings.

Excluding Tether and BTC the Korean won and Japanese yen are the second and third-placed currencies in the BCH market

Small is beautiful – preference for a whole over fractions

All of the above can be brought to bear in the BCH story of the past week, but it is still not enough in this writer’s view to explain the staggering near-doubling in value.

There is something altogether more prosaic at work.

Reading the UK Financial Conduct Authority’s interviews with consumers who entered the market in the wild ride to $20,000, we are reminded of one of its key findings – the ignorance of many market participants.

Getting skilled up is essential in this space for reasons we do not need to rehearse here.

One of the buyers in the FCA survey said she wasn’t aware that you could buy a fraction of a bitcoin and so decided to buy coins with a smaller unit price.

This tendency, driven by buying psychology that dictates that it is more palatable to purchase a coin with a smaller unit price, was seen among new consumer entrants in the previous bull market. It seems to be happening again and BCH is a prime candidate for attention.

Bitcoin Cash has a high profile because it a top 10 cryptoasset and can exploit the halo effect of the bitcoin brand name.

In conclusion then, the source of the momentum behind BCH may in part be influenced by any one or all of the factors already mentioned, but it is the fact that it presented the least friction for potential buyers, priced as it was at $167 as opposed to the $4,150 bitcoin price at the point of take-off.

BCH had fallen 98% from its all-time high to low, compared to bitcoin’s smaller 84% drop, which further accentuates the risk-reward proposition.

BCH could be starting its parabolic climb ahead of the rest.

And if you are pondering on how the other bitcoin forks are doing – don’t.

The argument of the BTC maximalists that there is really only one bitcoin is still valid.

Thanks to Ceteris Paribus

If that’s not enough of a note of caution then the transaction chart for BCH at bitinfocharts might provide some balance.

Bitinfocharts.com

Evidently, there’s not a lot happening on the BCH adoption front – there aren’t many people buying flights with BCH at bitcoin.travel it would appear. Roger Ver of course might say the same for bitcoin.

The post Here’s Really Why Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is taking off appeared first on Ethereum World News.

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SnK Episode 68 Poll Results (for Anime Only Watchers)

The poll closed with 59 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Manga Readers’ poll, click here.

Anime only watchers, beware of spoilers if you venture over to the manga readers’ poll results.

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RATE THE EPISODE 53 Responses

The response was overwhelmingly positive with 88.7% of responses giving the episode a 4 or a 5. In addition, there weren’t any 1s or 2s this time around. A noted contrast to the previous episode. Suppose Sasha’s death ruined the experience for some.

it epic

I NEED MORE

awesome

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 55 Responses

The scene with the largest amount of reception (18.2%) was the final scene of the episode, where Eren repeats his mantra to himself in the mirror while revealing his new look. Behind that was the reveal that Armin is talking to Annie (10.9%). At a tie (9.1%), people most enjoyed Hange’s eccentric greeting to the Marleyan soldiers and Onyankopon explaining why he believes people are different. At another tie (7.3%), were the scenes where Sasha is enjoying Nicolo’s cooking, and the scene where Eren is washing himself at the sink.

WHAT WAS THE MOST EMOTIONAL PART OF THE VISIT TO SASHA’S GRAVE? 57 Responses

The visit to Sasha’s grave was packed with many tragic moments. According to the responders, the most emotional of those was Connie’s line about losing “his half” (47.4%). Following that we have the scene of grieving Mikasa with 24.6%. In third place is Nicolo’s general grief. Other responses were, in this order, Sasha’s Father agreeing to a free meal from Nicolo, seeing the girl that Sasha saved from a Titan all those years ago and simply Sasha’s family appearing.

AFTER SEVERAL TENSE AND ACTION PACKED EPISODES, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE TRANSITION TO SOMETHING MORE CALM? 53 Responses

Ever since the series started, AoT has had a clear contrast between the content of its episodes. Episode 68 of the series notably contrasts with the prior 3-4 episodes. So we wanted to know how the fans respond to these sorts of things. 32.1% stated that they enjoyed the slower paced episode after weeks of chaos. An equal number of responders (32.1%) noted that although they far preferred the action-based content, they understood the need for the slower episodes. A little over 13% said they actually preferred the exposition-esque content, so they were happy with the change and finally, a bit over 11% stated that they were indifferent. 

I view exposition equally as important as action. 

Watching the show dissect what happened before and after the attack on Marley made everything so clear, I love how they were able to capture the drama of both sequences

I'm definetly here more dialogue heavy epiodes and flashbacks but maybe with a slower pacing. It felt a little messy because the episode was also dealing with Sasha's as well as backstory. I think thst was probably intentional though.

They both have their merits.

Still feels great

WOULD YOU RATHER GET A SURPRISE GREETING FROM EREN & HANGE, OR ARMIN & LEVI? 55 Responses

Marleyan Soldiers got two sets of surprises in this episode. One from Eren and Hange, one from Armin and Levi. The fans would clearly prefer to get one of those from Eren and Hange (78.2%) than Armin and Lavi (21.8%).

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW HAPPY ARE YOU TO BE BACK ON PARADIS? 55 Responses

We recently returned to Paradis Island and according to the responders, it was a much wanted development, with 85.4% giving a 4 or a 5 when it comes to hype about the return to the island.

ARMIN SAYS THAT ONCE EREN INFILTRATED MARLEY, THERE WAS NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO ATTACK IN ORDER TO PREVENT IMMEDIATE RETALIATION. DO YOU AGREE WITH HIM? 55 Responses

The raid on Liberio is being questioned not only by the audiences, but also by the characters in-universe. Still, when it comes to Armin’s justification for the attack, the majority (69.1%) think that there was no other choice for Paradis, be it because they could afford to lose Eren/Founding Titan or because Marley would have retaliated easily. Others (~10%) think that they either should have made more effort to find Eren before it came to the raid or should have just let him go. 14.5% simply aren’t sure. 

They had no choice but to retrieve Eren, but that doesn't necessarily mean a full blown attack. I think Armin is trying to convince himself here. 

Yes. Marley could have captured Eren and had Zeke or someone else eat him for the founding powers.

DO YOU THINK IT’S PLAUSIBLE THAT MARLEY WILL FIND A WAY TO QUICKLY COUNTERATTACK ANYWAY? 53 Responses

When it comes to Marley, one could wonder if they will attempt a quick counterattack. 67.9% believe so, 15.1% dissent. And 9.4% state that they have been spoiled.  For the write-in responder who feels that we are spoiling via the question itself, we assure you that anything we ask here had once been a matter of debate among manga readers when the corresponding chapters were fresh and we did not know the outcome. We would just like to give anime only watchers the same opportunity to have these debates. 

I don't know.

The fleet has been destroyed, but what about the airforce (if they have one)? I doubt Paradis has the mean to counter that. 

I'm not really sure honestly

This question is a spoiler itself: if you ask this, maybe it means that's what will happen. Thank you.

WHEN EREN FIRES HIS GUN AT THE END OF EMA’S TALK, IT TRANSITIONS TO SASHA TAKING A BULLET IN THE PREVIOUS EPISODE. DO YOU FEEL THAT THE NARRATIVE IS TRYING TO PIN THE BLAME SOLELY ON EREN? 55 Responses

Eren’s rifle shot was juxtaposed with Sasha’s death, showcasing a possible thread in the narrative. Does the narrative believe that Eren is to blame for Sasha’s death? 38.2% think it’s a yes and 45.5% think it’s a possibility. On the other hand, almost 11% don’t think the story is trying to go for that route. 

While I don’t think it’s trying to pin the blame solely on Eren. I think it’s trying to say he shares a large portion of the blame.

He may be partly at fault, but not fully.

Yes. But they shouldn't. Because it was GabBitch who killed Sasha, and GabBitch alone.

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT ZEKE, YELENA AND THE VOLUNTEERS ARE SINCERE IN THEIR WISH TO HELP PARADIS? 55 Responses

Zeke, Yelena and Co. are a set of characters. Are they a trustworthy set of characters? Certainly up to debate. 67.8% believe they’re trustworthy to a degree, at the very least. In contrast to 23.6% who find no trust in them. A select few have been spoiled. 

Mmm Yelena & co. maybe...I love Zeke but he's big sus this season

I think they are loyal to Zeke, and his goal is to get the funding titan. At the moment, this means allying themselves with Paradis, but that could easily change. 

They are very sus, Yelena is especially loose. IDK who they'll be loyal too.

DO YOU THINK THAT EREN WANTS TO USE THE WALL TITANS AS A SIMPLE DETERRENT, OR DOES HE WANT TO FLATTEN THE EARTH? 55 Responses

The possibility of a Rumbling has been brought up more than a few times throughout the series (mostly this season) and the question remains, “will Eren use the Rumbling to flatten the Earth?” 60% think that’ll be the case, in contrast to almost 11% who dissent. 27.3% were already spoiled about the outcome. 

That idiot definetly wants to flatten the earth. Empathy and logic has never been Erens strong suit.

DO YOU THINK THAT EMA HAVE BECOME MORE DISTANT FROM EACH OTHER? 55 Responses

The iconic EMA trio has been together through thick and thin, so something truly must happen for them to “break up”, so to say. Would one say that they have grown apart? 56.4% think so, but only insofar as Eren goes. 25.5% believe that they all have grown apart to a degree. 9.1% dissent to these assertions and a select few have been spoiled. 

Even Mikasa and Armin seem distant! They were coping on their own after coming back to Paradis. 

I like to refer to them as E     MA. lol. Yehhhh anyway- somethings defs off with them.

ARMIN SAID HE DIDN’T SEE ANY NOTEWORTHY MEMORIES FROM BERTOLT WHEN EREN ASKED HIM ABOUT IT. DO YOU THINK HE’S BEING TRUTHFUL? 55 Responses

A whole bunch of people doubt Armin’s statement about not seeing anything useful in Bertolt’s memories (81.8%), though some (14.5%) think the boy’s telling the truth. A select few have been spoiled.

DO YOU THINK MIKASA IS LOSING HOPE IN THE WORDS THAT ONCE GAVE HER STRENGTH? 56 Responses

Long ago, Mikasa stated that one must fight, survive and win. If they don’t fight, they won’t survive and will lose. But with some losses drumming up on the plate, could she start doubting this mantra? 46.4% believe that we cannot say one way or another until we see more. 26.8% don’t believe that Sasha’s death will shake her confidence in that belief and it’s just a brief moment of doubt, in contrast to 23.2% who believe that Sasha’s demise will irreparably change Mikasa’s philosophy. 

No....? I did't even realise she was that close to Sasha. I feel like if she loses Eren THEN she'll lose hope.

what words?

Mikasa deserves better than emo world destroyer Eren!!! She's too pure.

EREN SEEMED TO BE MISSING WHEN THE SURVEY CORPS WERE INTERACTING WITH THE VOLUNTEERS. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT MIGHT BE? 54 Responses

Eren wasn’t present when the others were interacting with the volunteers. Some believe it is noteworthy, others do not think so. 38.9% simply aren’t certain. 29.6% think it’s the SC decision to keep Eren away from Zeke’s followers. On the other, 20.4% predict that it was Eren’s own choice of isolation. A select few have simply been spoiled.

Didn’t notice this until now

Maybe he had already left for Marley?

ARMIN WAS HOPEFUL THAT THEY COULD SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS THROUGH DIPLOMACY. EREN FELT THAT PEACE WAS NEVER AN OPTION. WHO DO YOU AGREE WITH MORE? 54 Responses

A noted contrast in Eren and Armin’s beliefs was showcased in this episode. 57.4% find themselves siding more with Eren’s anti-diplomatic measures, while 42.6% support Armin’s more peaceful ways.

WE GOT A GLIMPSE OF ANNIE IN THIS EPISODE. WHAT BEST MATCHES YOUR THOUGHTS? 55 Responses

Annie has been encased in that crystal for years at this point, both in and out of universe. Is she going to get out of that crystal? Just a little over 69% believe so, in contrast to the one person who doesn’t. 23.6% were spoiled one way or another. 

Sis is running out of time...it would really suck if her 13 years were up before she even got out of her lil crystal

This has GOT to wake up, surely.

She got a nose reduction surgery

HOW DO YOU THINK ZEKE WILL RATE HIS STAY AT THE HOTEL OF GIANT TREES? 55 Responses

Zeke seemed shocked to find his hotel to be a forest of Giant Trees. An iconic location, seen throughout the series. We asked how you believe Zeke will rate his stay. A plurality (40%) think that he won’t be there long enough to do so. 29.1% believe he’ll give it an average score, in contrast to 23.6% who imagine Zeke loving his getaway! 7.3% have been spoiled.

WHAT BEST DESCRIBES YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT PIXIS ARRESTING THE VOLUNTEERS? 55 Responses

It would appear Pixis detained the volunteers while the SC were away. The majority (52.7%) don’t find it to be a controversial decision, noting that both parties have a mutual understanding between each other. A noted minority (29.1%) thought that it was actually the best course of action, arguing that the Paradisian Military has no way of knowing whether the volunteers are trustworthy or not now that Zeke is here on Paradis. In contrast, 18.2% thought that it was mistake, given how much assistance the Volunteers have provided to the islanders.

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE WAY THE PARADISIANS ARE SEEN TREATING MARLEYANS? 55 Responses

We saw some noted mistreatment of Marleyans by the Paradisians this episode. So we asked the responders what their thoughts were on this development. A plurality (47.3%) couldn’t say one way or the other and needed to see more to pass their judgment. 34.5% were open in their condemnation of those actions, in contrast to the 12.7% who were supportive of such activities. 

Cycle of haaaate. No one is justified in acting that way but it's understandable that they do

Some good, some bad. Military police doing the worst of course. 

An eye for an eye ✌

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

I don't know what to say anymore. This episode made me question my previous ideologies regarding the characters

In my opinion, this episode has more fanservice than usual, from the ship moments of Levihan and Aruani, and to the display of Mikasa's ass and Eren's abs, but Mappa is not over the top and can still get the plot moving and still have those moments that can move the viewers.

I believe in Onyankopon supremacy

Even though I love Mappa post timeskip designs, the pre timeskip design of some characters seemed a bit off to me (particularly Armin and Eren). It distracted me a bit from the action. 

Eren standing Infront of the mirror was way better in manga. Mappa need to put more effort. No hate tho. 

Idk, didn't blow me away. I'm seriously concerned for Armin, he's definetly losing it. Appreciated the flashbacks and the new characters too. Onyankopon has captured my mf heart, if he dies, I die too. 😌

Chad Eren

Niccolo x Sasha OTP

What the shit dude…

Gabi will forever be the worst character to me, no matter what the anime tries to do to justify her

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 54 Responses

Thanks again to everyone who responded!

Social Proof: How to Use Marketing Psychology to Boost Conversions

It’s a Saturday afternoon and you’re walking down the street looking for a place to try for lunch. Eight out of ten of the restaurants have people inside eating. The other two are completely empty. Are you more likely to go to one of the restaurants with people inside, or one of the two empty ones?

If you’re like most people, you’re likely heading into one that has people in it. You’ll probably even do it without even giving it a second thought. It’s not just a coincidence that we choose the restaurant with customers in it. It has to do with a little psychological phenomenon called social proof.

What is Social Proof?

Social proof is the concept that people will follow the actions of the masses. The idea is that since so many other people behave in a certain way, it must be the correct behavior.

Let’s go back to the restaurant example for a second. The reason you’re tempted to visit one of the restaurants with people in it instead of an empty one is because you assume the empty restaurants aren’t as good. After all, if they served good food, people would be in them, right?

That’s social proof in action. Even if the empty restaurants actually have better food and service, since more people are in the other ones, the assumption is they’re better.

Social proof isn’t new. There have been several studies conducted on the topic that show people are more likely to conform to the group decision. One classic example is the Solomon Asch conformity experiment that took place in 1951.

Asch was a psychologist who wanted to test the theory that people are likely to conform to the choice of the majority, even if the decision is clearly wrong.

For the experiment, Asch gathered male college students to participate in a line judgement task. Each group was shown images like the ones below:

They had to state which line (A,B or C) matched the target line on the left. Asch divided participants into groups of eight. However, only one of the people in each group was actually being tested. The other seven (let’s call them the insiders) agreed beforehand what their answers would be, which the real participant had no idea about.

Each person had to state which line was most like the target line. The correct answer was always obvious, and the real participant went last each time. There were a total of 18 trials, and the insiders were told to give wrong answers in 12 of them. During those 12 tests, 75% of the unknowing participants conformed and gave the wrong answer at least once.

In the other six trials when the insiders gave the right answer, the unknowing participant gave the wrong answer less than 1% of the time.

When Asch asked the unknowing participants why they conformed, he found that people follow social proof for one of two reasons:

They want to fit in with the group.

They believe the group is better informed than they are.

As you can imagine, social proof can be a very powerful tool for marketers when used correctly. By showcasing the popularity of your brand, products and services, you can make people more confident that you’re the right choice for them.

Why Social Proof is Important for Digital Marketing

The restaurant example we gave in the beginning shows how effective social proof can be in an offline setting. But you could argue that it’s even more important for online marketing efforts.

When you’re shopping in a store, you have the ability to directly compare products and see which is better. There’s less outside influence on your decision. If you’re trying to decide between a shirt from two different brands, you can feel the quality of them and try them on to see which fits better.

But when you’re shopping online, things are a bit more difficult. You almost need to rely on outside opinions to make your final decision since you don’t have the product in hand to try it yourself.

Before you buy that shirt online, you look at reviews to see what other people think of the fit and quality. Even if you personally like the style of the shirt, other customers’ experience can ultimately sway your opinion since they’re more knowledgable about the product.

Imagine if brick and mortar companies displayed the average review of every product they sold in stores. You’d probably shop a little differently and take other people’s reviews into account. This has actually already started happening. One study found that 50% of shoppers use their smartphones while shopping in stores to research products before they buy them.

Now that you know why social proof is crucial for all businesses, let’s dive into how to implement it.

How to Use Social Proof for Marketing

There are a ton of different ways social proof can be used for your marketing efforts, but they all basically revolve around showing that other people like what you’re offering, so they should too.

Some common tactics of establishing social proof are:

Positive reviews

Customer testimonials

Influencer or celebrity endorsements

Growing your social media following

Number of users or customers

Awards and recognition

Social shares (when done correctly)

Social proof is even more powerful when it comes from someone your prospect knows. According to a Nielsen survey, 82% of Americans say they seek recommendations from friends and family before making a purchase.

Ever wonder why Instagram shows you when someone you follow Likes a photo? It’s because they know the power of social proof and that if someone you follow Likes a picture, then you probably will too.

Or how about when LinkedIn sends you emails with information about your connections. Sure, part of it is to update you about people in your network, but it’s also about using social proof to get you to login or even try one of their new products.

Even if you don’t get to a level of personalization that Instagram and LinkedIn use, social proof still matters. A report from Minter found 70% of Americans seek out opinions from review sites or independent review sites before making purchases.

If you’re not using the power of social proof to your advantage, your landing pages, social media posts, product pages, blog content and other marketing channels may not be converting as well as they could be. In order to help you brainstorm some ways you can incorporate social proof into your efforts, here are seven tactics you can use, plus real life examples to learn from:

1. Positive Reviews

Are you more likely to try a restaurant with hundreds of five-star reviews on Yelp, or the one without any? Online reviews are probably the type of social proof most of us are familiar with, and they have a major impact on buying decisions.

BrightLocal found that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. One interesting tidbit of information from BrightLocal’s survey is that people don’t just trust the first review they see. On average, consumers check 2-3 different review sites before making a decision about a business.

That means that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to reviews. Try to get positive reviews on all the major sites for your industry. For local businesses that might mean Yelp, Google and FourSquare. For others like software companies, aim for positive feedback on sites like G2 Crowd.

Positive reviews can be used for social proof in your marketing materials as well. If you have a five-star rating on a major review site, include it on your website or landing pages like the restaurant Agliolio does on their homepage.

Adding reviews can also be very effective social proof for Ecommerce sites. Figleaves, a UK clothing retailer, added customer reviews to individual product pages and saw a 12.5% higher conversion rate on products with reviews compared to those without them. Plus, products with 20+ reviews had a 83.8% higher conversion rate than those without any reviews.

Reviews can also work against you and provide negative social proof. If you have a bunch of poor reviews, it’ll do more harm than good. According to BrightLocal’s study, most shoppers require at least a three-star rating before they’ll consider using a company.

The key takeaway here is you should strive to get as many positive reviews as possible, and don’t be afraid to show off your ratings.

2. Customer Testimonials

Just saying that your product works isn’t enough to convince people to buy it. What does compel people to pull out their wallets however, is a testimonial from someone that has used your product and had a positive experience.

One industry in particular that has used testimonials for social proof for decades is health and fitness. Nearly every major successful weight loss program and fitness product you can think of used testimonials to establish credibility.

Weight Watchers, Orange Theory, and even the classic Tae Bo all reached the masses thanks to testimonials from people who achieved success through their programs.

Angie B. from #Orangetheory Largo, FL has been absolutely CRUSHING her fitness journey lately, so we thought we'd get some feedback regarding her OTF experience… On her favorite part of the workout: "I love that every day is different. I never get bored!" On memories: "My best memory was Hell Week. I didn't think I could do it but not I can proudly say that I did!" On motivation: "I am motivated by the change and strength of my body. I am making progress both physically and mentally. I haven't hit my goal yet but have no doubt Orangetheory Fitness will get me there!" We're with you every step of the way, Angie! Congratulations on the success so far, thanks for sharing it with us, and as always, #KeepBurning!

A post shared by Orangetheory Fitness (@orangetheory) on Mar 8, 2017 at 5:30am PST

So why are testimonials so effective? For one, it proves there’s some value in your product or service. For instance, Constant Contact has an entire page dedicated to testimonials from customers that have used their software and achieved results.

The key to a compelling testimonial is for it to speak directly to a problem your product or service was able to solve for the customer. Just saying “I liked the product” is too broad. Notice how the Constant Contact testimonial points out specific results they saw—more engagement for their campaigns.

We use a similar approach with our customer case studies, like this one from Trello.

Get in touch with some of your satisfied customers and see if they’re interested in giving a testimonial about your company. Or, if you’ve been reviewed by a blogger that had a great experience with your company, reach out to them and ask them to provide a few words about their experience that you can use in your marketing materials.

Remember, research has shown that people trust peer recommendations over advertisements. One study showed 92% of consumers are more likely to trust non-paid recommendations than any other type of advertising. So a good testimonial can be more helpful than the most clever copywriting you can come up with.

3. Endorsements from Celebrities & Influencers

Influencer marketing was huge in 2016 and is expected to continue on that same path in the future. As we’ve already mentioned, consumers trust earned media and public opinion more than brands themselves. So it makes sense that they’d trust the word of people with influence as well.

Influencer marketing is also very profitable. Businesses are averaging $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, with the top 13% earning $20 or more.

Influencer marketing is particularly effective on social media:

Twitter users have a 5.2 times increase in purchase intent after seeing promotional content from influencers.

49% of of users rely on recommendations from Influencers on Twitter.

40% of people say they’ve purchased a product online after seeing it used by an influencer on social media.

Content from influencers earns more than 8 times the engagement rate of content shared directly from brands.

The best part about influencer marketing is that it’s not terribly difficult to do. Remember, influencers could be someone with a very active social media following, a celebrity, an industry expert or anyone else that has influence over a group people you’re trying to reach.

Something important to keep in mind is you want to find the right match. That means knowing your audience. If your demographic is senior citizens getting ready for retirement, teaming up with the latest teenage YouTube star might not be the best fit. If you’re unsure of who your audience is on social, you can use Sprout’s demographics report to see a breakdown of your followers.

Social proof is more effective if it comes from someone your audience trusts. So find an influencer that your target audience knows, likes and trusts, then figure out how you can work together. It could be through mentioning your brand in an Instagram post, reviewing your product on their website or writing an endorsement you can use on your site.

Check out our guide to influencer marketing for more tips on how to put together your campaign.

4. Social Media Following

While your business definitely shouldn’t rely on your number of social media followers as the ultimate measure of success, follower count can be be a form of social proof.

People like to follow the crowd—it’s the natural herd mentality. Basically, when people see there are a large group of people doing something, they’re more likely to join in.

Entrepreneur Derek Sivers did a very popular Ted Talk about how to start a movement. In it he mentions a study featuring a guy dancing by himself in the park. Then eventually one person joins him, then another and so forth. It creates a snowball effect and more people join in.

The big takeaway in regards to social proof and follower count is that people feel safer jumping on board when they see more people have joined in.

Here’s another example from the folks at Appsumo. While building up their Instagram following, they pointed out that it was much more difficult to go from 0-10K follower than it was from 10K-20K.

Having followers just for the sake of having them doesn’t really matter. This is the reason why a lot of marketers say businesses shouldn’t stress follower counts. Obviously you don’t want to just buy a bunch of fake followers to give the illusion of social proof. Focus on building a genuine following and you’ll be able to reap the benefits that come along with having an engaged audience.

5. User or Customer Count

Would you be more likely to order from the restaurant that has served billions of customers, or one that has served a couple hundred? McDonald’s bet that it would be the former, which is why they started putting messages like “Over 9 billion served” on their golden arches.

If your company has an established customer base, use your numbers as social proof. Showing how many customers, subscribers or users you have shows people think what you’re offering is valuable. That, and as humans we have a need to belong according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

People want to belong to a group. And again, we have that herd mentality that pushes us to want to join the larger crowd.You can easily add user stats into your marketing material like Canva does on their home page.

Notice how they’re not just saying “we have 10 millions users.” They’re inviting people to join the 10 million users, which creates the feeling of belonging to a community.

Another way you can use this tactic is by pointing out any popular brands that use your product or service. You can do this by adding logos like we do on our very own homepage.

If you go this route, make sure you’re pointing out brands your audience is likely to recognize. It’ll have a bigger impact and give you more validity.

Adding logos from customers for social proof is part of the strategy Voices.com used to increase conversions by 400%.

6. Awards & Recognition

People want to buy from brands they can trust. But sometimes just saying you’re trustworthy isn’t enough. Having evidence to support you is much more convincing. That’s why awards and recognition are great forms of social proof.

In a way, awards validate your brand because they come from a third party that has given you a stamp of approval. The more prestigious and recognizable the source of your award is, the more valuable it will be to list it on your site.

Former ecommerce company Bag Servant ran a test to see if adding one of the awards they won to the top of their shopping pages would result in better conversions. The control version included a button to follow them on Twitter, along with their follower count. The variation replaced that with a WOW badge, which was an award received from a well known business woman.

The variation beat out the control version with over 90% statistical confidence in all three goals they tested.

Another way to show prominence outside of just listing awards you’ve won is to mention websites you’ve been featured in like Search Engine Journal does at the bottom of their website.

If your company has been mentioned in well known media outlets, mentioning it on your site can make a great first impression on people just discovering you.

7. Do Social Shares Equal Social Proof?

Adding social buttons on your website seems like a logical way to add social proof. However, it could can also backfire in certain situations.

Database management company Calpont did some testing to see whether having social sharing buttons helped or hurt their conversions.

Originally, the company placed social sharing buttons in three locations, the top, side and bottom of each page. Their test concluded that removing the social sharing buttons from the top resulted in higher conversions.

Why was there such a difference from this one change? Well, CalPont’s content didn’t have many social shares. Most of the content had less than five Facebook shares. So the low numbers featured prominently at the top of each page turned people off.

Instead of listing your social share buttons at the top, place them on the side of the page so that they’re usable and not the focus of the page.

Make Social Proof Work for You

As you can see, social proof can work wonders for increasing your conversions. Try out the tactics above and see what type of results you can achieve.

This post Social Proof: How to Use Marketing Psychology to Boost Conversions originally appeared on Sprout Social.

from SM Tips By Minnie https://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-proof/

Takis Athanassiou | Leadership InitiativeHow to Claim Your Piece of the $400+ Billion Weight Loss Pie with Affiliate Marketing. Today’s article is written by Matt Papas. Matt worked as a biology researcher in the academia until 2010. He has had much success as an affiliate marketer since then, building various websites that help people learn how to improve their health. Lodlois is a site where Matt provides information about various weight loss programs. While we have recovered from the global financial crisis of 2008 and the markets have stabilized, the recession changed how we manage our money. According to a survey from Fidelity, American families are saving much more now than before, they are reducing debt, and they are building an emergency fund. But there is one thing Americans, and other people around the world, are opening their wallets for Weight loss products. Image Source: Pixabay A research report by Allied Market Research shows that the global weight loss and weight management market will reach $423 billion in 2020. While that’s an eye-opening number, it makes a lot of sense given that 20% of the U.S. population – or 60 million people – are on a diet at any given time. What fuels the humongous weight loss market? The obesity epidemic, of course. Globally, We’re Just Packing on the Pounds Obesity is certainly a major problem everywhere. In the United States, more than one-third of U.S. adults are classified as obese. Another third of Americans are overweight, meaning 2 out of 3 Americans weigh in more than is considered healthy. And the problem just keeps getting worse and worse. In the year 2000, obesity prevalence was lower than 30% across all US. Sixteen years later? Twenty-nine states have an obesity prevalence of 30% or more. Louisiana tops the ranks of US fattest state with 36% of its population being obese. Obesity is obviously unhealthy, but the problem is so bad that you could now consider a Twinkie to be more deadly than a cigarette. Obesity is the no. 1 cause of preventable death in the United States, with smoking taking the second position. The medical costs of obesity also trump those of smoking. In 2008, the U.S. paid $147 billion to treat obese patients. By 2018, that’s expected to more than double to $344 billion, and it’s predicted it will eat up about 21% of health-care spending. It’s not just the U.S., though, that is suffering the consequences of obesity. The World Health Organization (WHO) says that more than 2.5 million people die each year because of being overweight! WHO predicts that by 2018, there will be 2.3 billion overweight adults in the world, which is a 44% increase from just one decade before. The number of obese adults throughout the world will be 700 million, which is a whopping 75% increase in 10 years. Changing Our World to Accommodate Obesity Obesity isn’t just changing our healthcare system, it’s changing our way of life, from the cars we drive to our entertainment choices. If you’ve ever sat in an old ballpark, you know that the seats were made for people who were physically much smaller. Now, with Americans weighing more than ever before, businesses and organizations are remodeling to keep up with the more hefty population. For example, Reuters reports that: Many hospitals are reconfiguring bathrooms and replacing wall-mounted toilets with floor models to better support larger patients. The Federal Transit Administration is looking into testing buses to see if heavier riders impact the steering and braking. And obese people are even impacting the environment. Cars now burn nearly a billion gallons of gasoline more a year than if passengers weighed what they did 50 years ago. Watching Your Wallet Fatten While People Aim to Get Skinny While our waistlines are getting bigger and bigger, a great deal of effort is being applied to stop the obesity epidemic. People, especially women, strive to look slimmer, healthier, and sexier. Pharmaceutical companies invest big budgets on weight loss pills, like Arena Pharmaceuticals which on June 29th, 2012 had their Lorcaserin weight loss drug approved by the FDA—the first weight loss drug approval after 13 years. The US Government is funding weight loss projects, like Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” campaign to end obesity in children. Big weight loss corporations such as Weight Watchers, Medifast and Nutrisystem are getting more and more profitable every year, making big bucks by selling diet food (including meal replacements) or digital products (such as advice, information, and support). For example, Nutrisystem’s revenue increased 30% in the first 2 quarters of 2017 compared to last year and the company’s stock price has doubled. However, you don’t need to own a drug company or operate a retail chain or sell actual products like these centers do in order to make money. You don’t even have to spend four years back in school in order to become a dietitian. Instead, you can affiliate yourself with popular weight loss programs and fill a void in the market. 7 Tips to Promote Weight Loss Products Successfully as an Affiliate Right now, millions of people search the web every day for weight-loss information, and often ask questions ranging from, “Which weight loss program worked for you?” to “Will I lose my hair on Medifast?” Questions range from general to specific and serious to silly. But to the person asking the question, it’s important, and they are ready and willing to spend money on weight loss when they are directed to a proven diet solution that gets great reviews. To help them, you can create a website of weight loss information and resources. For example, you can: 1. List Out The Most Popular Weight Loss Programs And Explain How They Work Did you know that most consumers find research very boring? They hate spending time trying to find how products work, and what product is best for them. This is why they are open to recommendations and endorsements. Consumers love to read product reviews. Over 90% of consumers now read online reviews before purchasing a product. What’s interesting, forty percent of consumers will reach a decision about a product after reading only 1 to 3 reviews. That means, if you publish in your website an honest, informative, and compelling review of a top weight loss program you are affiliated with (and you promote properly with SEO methods), you will see people clicking through your affiliate links and purchasing that product. This is exactly what I did with my first site in 2008, where I reviewed and endorsed some of the top weight loss programs. 2. Compare And Review Programs People often want to know the differences between certain products. You can post a few articles comparing the top weight loss programs or diet products. Here is an example of a page that elaborates on Nutrisystem versus Medifast, two clinically studied meal replacement plans. Notice the details the author goes into as he lays out the differences in the cost, the food, how fast you lose weight with each program, etc. 3. Answer Questions About Each Program Answering consumers’ questions about a product are perhaps one of the most effective ways to pre-sell them to a product. You can find what questions people ask by using AnswerThePublic.com—a free keyword tool that gives you a nice visual keyword arrangement. Image Source: AnswerThePublic.com Here are a few questions that people ask about Nutrisystem that I got right from this tool. Which is cheaper Nutrisystem or Medifast? Which Nutrisystem plan is best for me? Are Nutrisystem bars healthy? How does Nutrisystem work? Is Nutrisystem healthy? Nutrisystem versus Weight Watchers? 4. Help People Choose The Product That Is Best For Them Based On Their Goals And Individual Needs One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to losing weight. Different products cater to different people. Weight Watchers, the granddaddy of all weight loss programs, has a plan for those who want to physically meet with other dieters (Weight Watchers Meetings), and a plan for those who want to lose weight alone online from the comfort of their home (Weight Watchers Online). Nutrisystem has different plans for women, men, diabetics, families, seniors, and teenagers. However, this abundance of choices may confuse people. Help them choose what is right for them. You can write an article explaining which plan will best work for them based on their goals and needs. 5. Provide Testimonials From People Who Have Tried The Product And Make Sure You Indicate How Much Weight They Lost Testimonials are very important especially when they come from individuals that people can relate to. You can ask somebody to try the product you are promoting and write an article describing their experience with it. If they end up losing weight, make sure you ask them for their “before and after” photos so that you post them on your site. This is what Susan did when she wrote about her Nutrisystem results. 6. Offer Information On The Latest Clinical Studies About Programs, If Available Not many products have been clinically studied, but most of them have been designed based on a scientific logic. Whether they aim at curbing appetite, increasing metabolism, or reducing caloric consumption, weight loss products have a reason to work. Make sure you communicate this reason with your audience. Why is the particular product effective? What does it do to your body to help you lose weight? 7. Discuss Safety And Potential Side Effects Of Each Product If you are featuring a review of a weight loss product that has potential side effects (i.e a weight loss pill), mentioning the potential “dark” side of the product shows that you truly care about your readers’ health, and this makes your review more unbiased and trustworthy. By endorsing and recommending certain weight loss products, once you send traffic to a website and generate a sale, you will be paid a commission for it. You’ll find that some commissions are more lucrative than others. For example, on Amazon.com, if you type “weight loss products” into the search engine, you’ll get more than 61,000 results. With a 5% commission on referred sales, Amazon is a proven way to generate a sustainable income. But there are more profitable options as well. My advice is to affiliate with the large weight loss companies that have a track record of success. For example, Weight Watchers is the most profitable program out there and it pays you $10 per referral that results in a sale. Medifast offers doctor-approved meal replacements; it pays out a whopping 20% commission. If you’re able to create a compelling site that offers informative content and reviews to readers, customers will flock to your site, earning you loads of commissions. Remember, spending on weight loss is just going up, up, up. How will you get your slice of that? The post How to Claim Your Piece of the $400+ Billion Weight Loss Pie with Affiliate Marketing appeared first on Takis Athanassiou | Leadership Initiative.

Rachel Louise Shaw, Women’s experiential journey toward voluntary childlessness, 21 J Community & Applied Social Psychol 151 (2011)

Abstract

Voluntary childlessness is a relatively novel yet growing phenomenon. It has implications on fertility rates, our ageing society, health and social care, and economic growth. This idiographic study explored three women’s experiential journeys toward voluntary childlessness to help understand this phenomenon and its impact on contemporary society. Semi-structured interviews were carried out and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Themes identified were: the legacy of feminism, models of mothering, and owning the choice to be childless. Despite defining ‘voluntary childlessness’ as an unequivocal decision, the women’s experiential accounts revealed an intrinsic complexity in their journeys toward childlessness. Factors including beliefs in equality, independence and career aspirations competed with constructs of mothering/motherhood, partnership and choice to create a complex tapestry of contributory factors in these women’s childlessness. The findings question the notion of choice and particularly women’s ownership of that choice. The journeys toward childlessness that these women shared reveal a synthesis of agentic decision-making, personal histories and challenging lifestyle choices bound up within an existential need to be a woman. Further research is needed to fully understand the role of voluntary childlessness within society’s notion of family, its care systems, and its impact on future generations. 

This study investigated meanings attributed to ‘voluntary childlessness’. An idiographic approach was taken using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA; Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009) to analyze three British women’s experiential journeys toward identifying themselves as voluntarily childless.

Recent changes in UK fertility patterns show that birth rates fell to 1.63 children per woman on average in 2001 (below the population replacement level of 2.1; ONS, 2005a) and although there was a slight increase to 1.96 in 2008 (ONS, 2008a), the largest growth is among women aged 40 and above. This may be due to more women having their first child later (Rollins, 1996) or more people deciding to opt out of parenthood altogether (Hakim, 2003). Furthermore, increasing numbers of migrant women at childbearing age have contributed to the recent increase (ONS, 2008a).

The success of medical science has meant improved mortality which, when coupled with a decline in fertility rates, could be problematic for future generations. For the first time in recorded history, the percentage of people living in UK under 16 has dropped below those at state pensionable age (ONS, 2008b). This impacts on already over-stretched health and social care services. Ill health increases with age as does the likelihood of consulting health and social care services; the largest proportion (43%) of money spent on personal social care in 2007 was on services for older people (ONS, 2008c). One way society has dealt with this is by families providing informal care for their ageing relatives: in 2001, 78% of social care provided in the community was delivered by a family member (ONS, 2005b). The problem is clear: if the number of people choosing not to have children continues to increase society will no longer be able to rely on adults caring for their elderly parents.

This is not a manifesto for increasing fertility rates because other factors are at stake: the world is already filled with densely and over populated areas struggling to meet demands for food, health care and housing; and then we have dwindling energy supplies of gas and oil to consider and the impact children have on our ‘carbon footprint’. Rather than promoting one lifestyle (with children or without) over another, what is needed is an in-depth investigation of our changing society and social networks so we can better understand the life paths available, their benefits and challenges, before moving on to determine how these impact on society. What we currently know about motivations for childlessness is limited, which is why this study was designed to explore it further.

Existing psychological research has focused on attempting to predict what sort of woman would choose not to have children. The following reasons for remaining childless have been identified: more reliable birth control, later marriage and marital breakdown, higher levels of education, high status employment which women are reluctant to risk, heightened concern about the environment and general state of society, partner’s wishes, less time with partner, emotional strain, responsibility and lack of patience (Langdridge, Sheeran & Connolly, 2005; Dalphonse, 1997; Kiernan, 1989). Others have used measures of masculinity and femininity, which typically cast childless women as more ‘masculine’, categorizing them as ‘early articulators’ (women who made a decision not to have children before marriage) or ‘postponers’ (women who remain childless due to circumstance rather than an explicit decision; Callan, 1984; Callan & Que Hee, 1984). Other research has approached voluntary childlessness as a social phenomenon. For example, Cannold (2004) described her Australian sample according to their ‘baseline orientation to motherhood’ with respect to their imagined futures and identities, as opposed to when a decision was made. Her classification included ‘childless by choice’ and ‘childless by circumstance’; the latter was broken down again to include ‘thwarted mothers’ and ‘waiters and watchers’.

The bulk of literature has tackled voluntary childlessness discursively from a feminist perspective; while previous generations of women would consider it ‘natural’ to become a mother, increasing opportunities for women in the workplace and dramatic changes in ways of living mean that motherhood is no longer a ‘gender fate’ (Beck & Beck-Gernsheim, 1995). Nevertheless, Gillespie’s (2001) study of socio-historical discourses of womanhood identified powerful ideologies which convey femininity as commensurate with motherhood. One is the discourse of submission and obedience to God’s will present in religious doctrine; another is the medicalization of reproductive technology which maintains patriarchal power over women’s bodies and further promotes motherhood, even ‘against the odds’, i.e. with increased use of artificial reproductive technology (ART; Snowden, 1998). Another force which unites Western-nation states in the normalization of motherhood is pro-family legislation: in the US, the Republican Right continues to preserve ‘traditional family values’ and restricts the availability of abortion; in the UK, Brown’s Labour has strengthened its Working Families policy through measures such as family tax credit schemes and increased maternity and paternity leave (Department of Trade and Industry, 2006); and in Australia the maternity payment (or ‘Baby Bonus’) has increased by 40% since its introduction in 2004 (Carmichael & Whittaker, 2007). These initiatives normalize the nuclear family and with it heterosexuality, monogamy and raising children. Anyone who does not fit within this narrow framework becomes marginalized:

“Consequently, the nurturance of children has historically been seen to be what women do, and mothers have been seen to be what women are, constituting the central core of normal, healthy feminine identity, women’s social role and ultimately the meanings of the term woman.” (Gillespie, 2001: 3).

As the majority of existing research has been survey based or at the societal level, this study will examine the conceptualizations of voluntary childlessness by investigating the personal experience of choosing to remain childfree and what it means to be identified as voluntarily childless.

Method

University ethical approval was granted to solicit an opportunistic sample using invitations to UK-wide electronic mailing lists. This study was part of a larger project investigating voluntary childlessness from different perspectives. The women included here were selected on the basis that they defined themselves as voluntarily childless during data collection. All volunteers were asked to sign a consent form and informed of their right to withdraw. All data were kept confidential and participants were given pseudonyms to protect their anonymity.

Participants

The participants, Judith, Beth and Lily are all white professional women: Judith was aged 47, Beth 40 and Lily 28. Due to its focus on individuals’ accounts of particular experiential phenomena, IPA research suggests recruiting a homogeneous sample as far as possible. This sample is homogeneous in terms of ethnicity and professional status.

Data collection

Participants were interviewed individually and encouraged to tell the story of their journey toward voluntary childlessness. The interview was guided by a semi-structured schedule but was flexible in order to privilege participants’ voices (Mishler, 1996). Open-ended questions were asked, for example: ‘how did you come to describe yourself as voluntarily childless?’ Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim.

Analysis

Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA; Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009) was used to examine individuals’ experiential accounts (e.g., Eatough & Smith, 2006; Shaw, 2004). It takes from hermeneutics the importance of interpretation and involves a ‘double hermeneutic’: “The participants are trying to make sense of their world; the researcher is trying to make sense of the participants trying to make sense of their world” (Smith & Osborn, 2008: 53). From Heideggerian phenomenology, IPA takes its interest in being-in-the- world (Heidegger, 1962). The temporality and historicity of human experience is considered paramount which drives IPA’s idiographic commitment to investigating the person’s experience in context (Reid, Flowers & Larkin, 2005).

The analysis proceeded on a case by case basis as described by Smith & Osborn (2008). The first transcript was read several times to achieve generic understanding. It was then read more closely and the text separated into meaning units. For each meaning unit, a descriptive summary of the experience the participant recounted was written. Following this, interpretative coding was undertaken and salient themes identified before moving on the next case. Interpretative themes from each woman’s account were then synthesized to produce the themes presented.

Reflexivity

Engaging in reflexivity is crucial when making sense of human experience (Shaw, in press). In this analysis, the process of hermeneutic reflection was considered most appropriate. This involved “continually reflecting upon our interpretations of both our experience and the phenomena being studied so as to move beyond the partiality of our previous understandings and our investment in particular research outcomes” (Finlay, 2003: 108). A reflexive journal was kept throughout.

Results

Themes identified in the analysis are: the legacy of feminism, models of mothering and owning the choice to be childless. At the start of the interview, each woman was asked for a definition of ‘voluntary childlessness’ and each assumed it involved an unequivocal decision:

“a couple who have deliberately chosen not to have children [Interviewer: yeah] for whatever reason they’ve made an active decision not to have children” (Beth)

“Women who choose well I suppose it could be broader than just women I mean you could apply it to their partners as well but situations where people have no fertility problems or other reasons that would be an obstacle to having children but they’ve just made that sort of lifestyle choice that they don’t want to have children” (Judith)

“Erm I think it refers to someone who has the option to have children whether biologically or not by other means but chooses not to” (Lily)

Several assumptions are implicit here. Firstly, Beth assumed the decision is made by a (heterosexual) couple. Judith introduced motivation – a “lifestyle choice” – attributing agency to couples as did Beth’s “deliberate” choice. Judith suggested that voluntarily childless people would not have any (known) fertility problems while Lily argued that people who cannot conceive biologically may choose not to have children through other means (e.g., ART or adoption) making them voluntarily childless too. In summary, these definitions stress the voluntary aspect of this childlessness inferring that it is actively decided upon by individuals or couples.

The legacy of feminism

Using the literature as a starting point, and taking into account the ages of the women who took part, it was almost inevitable that feminism would contribute in some way to the discussion. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it played the strongest role in Judith’s account because she lived her teenage years in the sixties. Judith drew on feminist concepts of equality, independence and freedom to pursue a career as significant to her own voluntary childlessness:

“I suppose there’s a strand of feminist influence in the sense of when I was young I was very aware of erm as a woman not wanting to feel pushed into a traditional role if that wasn’t what I wanted [..] it was an exciting time because I felt I was part of a generation that would erm stick two fingers up at all that and say ‘no I’m going to do whatever I want to do, I’m going to have a career, I can be whatever I want to’. [..] I suppose I felt resistant to compromising a career and being independent and having the freedom, and that I saw having children as being an obstacle with all of that” (Judith)

In this extract Judith positioned herself as rebellious, following her own path rather than one prescribed by tradition. Reflecting on her younger self, she stressed feminism as what attracted her to a life without the “obstacle” of children. Although the intervening years and the advent of a “post-feminist era”, later led Judith to see those ‘ideals’ as unachievable and potentially irrelevant to the everyday world:

“despite people saying it’s a post-feminist era you know men still don’t do their share, they’re not you know there are still different expectations about roles of men and women and there are certainly very big differences in terms of what men and women do with regard to you know domestic stuff, with or without children, and certainly with regard to childcare” (Judith)

Despite this gendered domestic scenario, which Judith implied was overly demanding on women, she did reminisce about the past when women were housewives and men breadwinners, but when mothering was a shared experience conducted in a communal environment:

“I think we live in such a fragmented society [..] we’re living in smaller households and families don’t- aren’t around to help share, because I think that’s what I enjoyed as a child and what I plugged into was that collective stuff with all the cousins and everybody else’s children and aunties and uncles and next door neighbours whose doors were always open [..] so I think we need to break down some of those barriers to collective living and share that sort of thing and I think that’s the thing about motherhood that- that we’ve got an over focus on motherhood” (Judith)

Judith remembered a sense of community where families lived in and out of each others’ houses. The received wisdom of extended families and shared nurturing they bring seemed to Judith to offer something more than the isolated way of living today. Judith felt that because of changes in ways of living the responsibility of raising children has shifted to women as individuals, instead of the community at large, who are nevertheless expected to perform their mothering role autonomously and successfully.

Related to this is the notion of motherhood as natural which Beth referred to in her rejection of it. What is remarkable in Beth’s account though is not the lack of a “maternal burning desire” but Beth’s surprise at herself for feeling this way:

Beth: I do think it’s a bit weird that I don’t that I’ve never worried about not having children, I have thought a few times perhaps that’s a bit weird Interviewer: but then why- why should it be weird? Beth: well I’m female, aren’t women supposed to want children. Even when I had that conversation [about whether to have children] with John [husband] you would have thought I’d be really upset or something [..] I didn’t get upset afterwards about what was said, just it seems strange

Beth’s account raised anxieties about how childlessness impacted on her external self. Our relational self is constituted by and communicated through the way we choose to live our lives and Beth seemed concerned that her rejection of motherhood brought with it a form of defeminisation. The ordinariness of motherhood is also evident in Lily’s social negotiation of her self as voluntarily childless:

“it does make you feel like a bit of a freak [..] because you’re the odd one out [..] you just feel like the person who doesn’t fit in, the person who’s life isn’t as fulfilled, which is crazy, what a sad situation” (Lily)

Lily oriented toward feeling stigmatized. Her experience of being voluntarily childless is characterized by the way she thinks others judge her for this. There was tension between Lily’s sense of others’ feelings toward her and her assessment of the situation as unfair. She saw herself as a freak – or thought that others saw her as a freak – because she “doesn’t fit in”. At the same time, she suggested the reason others think she is a freak is because she is living an unfulfilled life; hence, according to Lily’s view of society, having children is not only normal and natural but the only path to a fulfilling life. Given this assumption, it is not surprising Lily casts herself a freak. Nevertheless, Lily presented an alternative assessment of this “sad situation” as an unfair way to judge childless women when she rejected it as “crazy”. This short extract reveals the work Lily felt she needed to do to present her childfree self as a legitimate member of society. Despite having taken advantage of the increased educational and career opportunities for women in contemporary culture, thanks to the feminist movement, Lily felt that choosing a career over children will never be construed as a defensible choice for a woman:

“I think if people see you as choosing work over children then they think you’re making the wrong choice because children are so much more important of course they are because they’re living beings [..] that’s still a much more worthy thing to do with your life than to you know get a good job.” (Lily)

This again highlights the negativity Lily attributed to her voluntary childlessness. She constructed it as a competition – career versus motherhood. Lily’s interpretation focused on the benefits of having children to contribute to the gene pool which lead her to a positive assessment of motherhood compared with the less important contribution of “a good job”.

The legacy of feminism is complex for these women. As someone who experienced the feminist movement firsthand, Judith initially celebrated the positive effect it had and each woman participating, as a professional, is in some way a product of feminism. Notwithstanding the new opportunities brought about by social change, each woman questioned the legacy of feminism. While women are now able to participate equally in education, have a successful career, and be economically independent, Lily has shown us the allure of motherhood as a ‘natural’ and fulfilling alternative may always be perceived by others as superior. Beth’s concern about her lack of maternal desire illustrates the central place of motherhood within contemporary constructions of womanhood. And Judith’s nostalgia for a close-knit community demonstrates the challenge and potential loneliness of motherhood in the twenty-first century.

Despite these problems, Judith, Lily and Beth have identified themselves as voluntarily childless and the next theme will explore in some depth the personal histories that contributed to this construction of the self.

Models of mothering

It is not uncommon for children’s play to involve ‘faux parenting’ and the construction of ‘happy families’ in their imagined futures. In talking about her journey toward childlessness, Lily revealed that she had always imagined that she would have children and from being a young girl, she had forged a fantastical view of motherhood:

“we’d be in like this little house erm and yeah I’d probably have two kids or maybe more but probably two and they’d have blonde hair and it’d be all cool and we’d get up in the morning and we’d be singing and I’d be putting them in the bath and stuff and then we’d go out to the park and we’d do all this nice stuff and it’s kind of wonderful and yeah there’d be all kind of this idyllic little dream” (Lily)

Lily’s construction of motherhood draws upon the stereotypical simplicity of ‘2.4 children’ and living ‘happily ever after’; in her own words, an “idyllic little dream”. Reading that quote conjured a dreamscape of fuzzy images with bright sunshine, a fairy-tale cottage and a lush green meadow the like of which might feature in a children’s storybook. Indeed, this is an image Lily created in childhood. However, she did not leave it in the past. As Lily continued to describe this idealized view of motherhood it became clear that this is something she had contemplated more recently. In her “idyllic little dream”, Lily imagined herself as “quite a good mum”:

“I think I might have been a bit crazy but probably would have been quite a good mum. I did think that being a mother would change me for the better that I’d become a less selfish person and you know it’d bring out this really good caring about other people kind of side [..] you do sort of see it in a pink tinged perfect way with your little pram and everything and it’s not like that in reality” (Lily)

Alongside her childlike picture of happy families, Lily considered that becoming a mother would hold personal benefits in terms of creating an acceptable and ‘socially approved’ persona. In doing this, Lily constructed an alternative ending to explore the possibilities of life had she made different choices. This demonstrates Lily’s active self-reflection; she is clearly someone who has thought through her current situation and considered alternative life paths before choosing the route which led to her self-categorization as voluntarily childless. These extracts also illustrate the salience of imagined and idealized models of mothering and their potential impact on women’s journeys toward childlessness.

Instead of the somewhat romantic image Lily created, Judith took her model of mothering from her past:

“because I didn’t like the way my mother behaved with me and my sister, a really strong part of my identity forming was about not being like her [..] because she’s now got dementia I was sort of revisiting my relationship with her and trying to make sense of it and through talking that through in counselling I became aware that erm I spent a lot of my formative years trying to not be my mother and part of that came out as not wanting to be a mother” (Judith)

Judith shared her experience of counselling and among the topics of discussion was her mother’s recent illness which encouraged Judith to explore her maternal relationship in some depth. The extract above constituted the result of a great deal of reflective work and represented Judith’s current thinking about her own life choices in the context of her experience of being mothered. Having done this work, Judith was faced with the realization that her wish to avoid modelling her own mother’s behaviour did in some way contribute to her childlessness. Judith’s sister though took the opposite path which illustrates that the same circumstances do not always lead to a similar outcome:

“her response was that’s not how to do it, I know how to do it and I’m going to do it in my way and I’m going to be completely different with my children, whereas I just shied off it completely” (Judith)

Beth’s thinking about her childfree status was in some ways more organic than the rehearsed positions of Lily and Judith. It became clear that Beth had not reflected at length on her life choice to remain childfree and that some of the things she discussed emerged in-the- moment as she explored her own experiential journey. In doing this, Beth began to speak about her mother:

“I’ve got a very difficult relationship with my mother. She’s got a mental illness as well as a physical illness [..] she’s erm demanding, she’s like a spoilt child actually she demands an awful lot of attention [..] it’s certainly true that the difficulty I’ve had with my mother etcetera certainly has influenced whether or not we’d have had children in our case, definitely. [..] She probably is one of the reasons why I haven’t got children.” (Beth)

Beth’s candid description of her maternal relationship revealed an almost tangible sense of absence that had been overwhelmed by duty; absence of the loving and supportive mother model set against the duty of care Beth felt toward her mother resulting in the somewhat ironic situation of Beth mothering her own mother (“she’s like a spoilt child actually”).

This theme has illustrated the prominence of models of mothering both in terms of these women’s own lived experience of being mothered and its potential impact on the decision to remain childless and in terms of the idealized visions of motherhood which function to perpetuate the myth of the ‘happily ever after’. The final theme will further uncover the nuances of the phenomenon of voluntary childlessness by using these women’s accounts to deconstruct the notion of choice.

Owning the choice to be childless

At the beginning we saw each woman prioritize choice by defining voluntary childlessness as an unequivocal decision. However this theme will question the nature of that choice by exploring issues of agency and circumstance that contributed to these women’s journeys toward voluntary childlessness. The first example sees Beth construct her childlessness as something borne out of circumstance rather than a definite decision:

“it just sort of happened really we didn’t get- I’m now forty, we didn’t get married until I was thirty-five, although I was with John for ten years before that although I wasn’t living with him, so we’d had a fifteen year relationship erm I always imagined I’d probably have children [..] but never really sort of got round to it” (Beth)

This was Beth’s opening gambit regarding her childlessness; it came early on in the interview and worked to contextualize her current relationship status, her age, and her childlessness. In this extract there was little to reveal Beth’s feelings about remaining childfree as she has presented it in a very matter of fact way. Later on in the interview Beth talked through the decision-making process she underwent with her partner:

“about sort of a year in [to the marriage] we sort of said you know time’s getting on, I’m now thirty-six, you know, one needs to just make the decision one way or another and though I think we’d actually both make really really lovely parents erm John said he didn’t really want to share me with anybody and after what we’d been through [with Beth’s mother] so he thought it was quite late for us to start having children erm and I wasn’t that bothered either way to be perfectly honest I just accepted his decision and I don’t think [Beth knocks on the table] the tape can’t hear me touching wood erm we’re perfectly happy with that decision. It doesn’t bother us at all. I’ve got no particular desire to have children. I might regret it when I’m seventy I might not” (Beth)

In this extract we learned a great deal more about the factors that contributed to Beth’s childlessness, some of which might make us question whether it falls within the remit of what is voluntary. Firstly, Beth described needing to make a decision with her partner about whether to have children soon after they were married. This is set within the context of her age and is tinged by a sense of lost time; Beth inferred that her “difficult relationship” with her mother impacted negatively on her relationship and delayed her marriage, which prevented her from addressing this earlier. Beth’s summary of her discussion with her husband positioned him as pro-actively endorsing childlessness in order to fully commit to their marriage. In turn, Beth presented herself as reactive yet content with this proposal. Despite this, Beth still felt the need to position herself and John as potentially “really really lovely parents”. By doing this, Beth pre-empted and quashed the potential accusation that childless individuals take that path because they would fail as parents. She also pointed to her possible future regret which demonstrates a pragmatic stance toward life choices. It also conceptualized voluntary childlessness as contingent on time; a past experience, a current reflection, a future regret each existing along the continuum illustrating the significance of time in understanding this phenomenon.

Judith’s story also involved some intricate negotiations between circumstance and choice. In her thirties Judith was sterilised and at the time, as well in the years building up to her sterilisation, she identified her feminist beliefs as central to this decision:

“if you’d asked me this question in my twenties I’d have talked about all the sort of feminist things and wanting to be independent and have a career [..] in my thirties I was so adamant that I wasn’t going to have children that I’ve been sterilised so I can’t have children and I have no doubts that that was what I thought at the time. And I think on balance it is right” (Judith)

With the benefit of work carried out in counselling Judith analyzed her life choice to be sterilised from an experiential distance. In this extract Judith hinted at self-deception or perhaps denial; in her twenties and thirties, the dominant feeling driving her desire to remain childfree was a belief in equality and independence for women and the chance to escape the ‘gender fate’ of motherhood. Now in her forties Judith contemplated whether less conscious feelings contributed which had only come to light more recently:

“I know when I worked out all the feelings I’d had when I was younger I felt sort of cheated of having the choice taken away, which is stupid because I mean I did it in my thinking erm nobody deliberately did it to me, but, I don’t say so much cheated but I felt a sense of loss that that door wasn’t open anymore, erm but with a bit of space, I was, you know, I did go through a sort of sense of grief for that at the time but with a bit of distance from that now erm I think actually I may well not have had children anyway” (Judith)

Through engaging in a process of directed self-reflection, Judith begun to deconstruct what she had previously seen as an unequivocal decision to be sterilised. She described the process of reflection as “painful” particularly because she now believed it related so strongly to her relationship with her mother. The sense of time is especially salient in Judith’s account because it switches between a retrospective self-analysis and an evaluation of her current state of mind:

“having said all of that, if you’d asked me the question and I answered honestly, I’m not without regret. But I’m not deeply troubled by regret and the regrets aren’t a burden” (Judith)

It is the wisdom of hindsight which seemed to enable Judith to rationalize her childlessness and to openly explore the way she felt about it now.

Lily’s case is rather different but no less complicated: after they were married, Lily’s husband discovered he had severe fertility problems which meant a natural conception was deemed impossible and reproductive treatment was unlikely to be successful. For some, this prognosis would exclude Lily from identifying as voluntarily childless but Lily defined herself as such because she chose not to take up alternative (non-biological) methods of having children:

“I found this out erm about a year after we’d been married and that was like obviously really devastating. And they did think for a while that there might be other routes that we could go down, so we looked into those and over the like past four, five years we’ve found that actually no, the other sort of medical routes aren’t going to be viable either. Erm so that leaves you with adoption and we’ve talked it over and talked it over and just decided we just don’t want to go down that route so I guess, even though biologically it’s not an option that’s available to me, it is a voluntary choice erm not to adopt and actually that makes me feel a bit more in control of the whole situation because then it’s not that poor me I can’t have them it’s like okay my options are limited but at the same time there’s still options and I’m choosing not to take those ones and to go in a different direction.” (Lily)

Lily described her self-endorsed identity of a voluntarily childless woman as a mechanism for managing her childlessness. Previously, we saw the work Lily felt was necessary to position her sense of self as legitimate within a world she believed constructs motherhood as the only fulfilling fate for a woman. From this extract we learn that this work is crucial in building Lily’s sense of internal control. Moreover, it is essential for her to feel authentic. As the interview moved on, Lily appeared reconciled with her decision to remain childfree, that is, the decision she made with her husband not to adopt. However, at times she returned to the difficulty of the medical ‘truth’ which challenges her self-construction as voluntarily childless:

“So it’s a really mixed thing but I think I’ve forced myself to think of the positives [of not having children] to try and cope with it. So I don’t think it’s like a ‘oh yeah I’m so empowered this is wonderful I feel great about this decision’. I think part of me is still annoyed that it’s partly been taken out of my hands but I’m trying to be positive and feel empowered that I’ve made a choice not to adopt because we could do that.” (Lily)

This illustrates the lived experience of situated freedom; we can make life choices only within the constraints of the social world in which we live. For Lily, evoking a sense of control enabled her to rationalize her childlessness and to learn to live a life that is different from what she had anticipated in her dreamlike vision. Again, this emphasizes the significance of our personal relationships and time, as something we live through and which contextualizes our sense of self, in the journey toward childlessness.

Each woman seemed to deconstruct the notion of choice and, arguably, none of them fully owned their choice to be childfree: Beth constructed it as largely her husband’s decision and a result of her mother’s illness; Judith attributed it to feminist ideals and the inappropriate mothering model she experienced; and Lily’s decision to remain childfree was triggered by the realization that she would not be able to have a biological child with her husband. These complex interactions between circumstance and choice underline the challenge of understanding the potentially contested and dynamic phenomenon of voluntary childlessness.

Discussion

This study has examined three women’s experience of voluntary childlessness. Each woman defined herself as voluntarily childless and when asked to describe that status in general terms saw it as something borne of an unequivocal decision. Their lived experience of voluntary childlessness was rather more complex though. The legacy of feminism illustrates the varied impact feminism had on these women’s constructions of voluntary childlessness. Judith’s sterilisation was driven by a desire to avoid the ‘gender fate’ (Beck & Beck- Gernsheim, 1995) of motherhood and instead capitalize on opportunities brought about by feminism. However, this impact was not experienced as wholly positive by these women. Judith’s impression that domestic practices do not exhibit the same equality that has been achieved in the workplace is corroborated by previous research. Artis & Pavalko (2003) found that despite growing numbers of households with dual earners and the common practice of pooling income to support a chosen lifestyle, women are still more likely to do the majority of housekeeping tasks, including being the primary carer of any children. Furthermore, the voluntary childless men and women in Park’s (2005) study perceived parenthood as a sacrifice: women thought it an obstacle to career aspirations, as did Judith; men saw it as a financial sacrifice. It is not surprising that women, like those who took part in this research, would seek a successful career and financial independence and see motherhood as an obstacle to those things. What we learn from Lily’s account though is that professional women may not feel assimilated into society until they have also fulfilled their ‘calling’ to become a mother. So instead of feminism offering women a choice between children and career, it has left them feeling pressurized to have both (Shaw & Giles, 2009).

The impact of this dual life goal for women is intensified when we consider Beth and Lily’s experience of feeling de-feminized and stigmatized as voluntarily childless women. Previous literature supports these experiential claims. Women without children have been defined by what is missing; they are ‘barren’, childless, non-mothers (Letherby, 1994). Moreover, Hird & Abshoff (2000) argued that the ‘childless woman’ has been socially constructed as an oxymoron: “Indeed, in most societies to choose to remain childless is perceived as somehow ‘unnatural’, so deeply inscribed and culturally scripted are essentialist ideas of womanhood” (Miller, 2005: 58). Beth’s concern was that somehow she did not match up to her expectations of what it meant to be a woman because she did not experience a ‘maternal desire’ for children. This position evoked the well rehearsed discourse of motherhood as natural and its reverse, the ‘unnaturalness’ of non-motherhood. Certainly, existing evidence has demonstrated that women who are not mothers are ‘called to account for themselves’ in ways that mothers are not (Morell, 1994). In other words, women who choose not to have children are ‘othered’ because they do not follow the agreed script.

Furthermore, the language used in this field is contentious. Voluntary childlessness is said to have derogatory connotations: childlessness denotes a lack, hence supporting the discursive strategies which marginalize women without children; instead, using the term childfree implies freedom of choice (Veevers, 1980). This sense of marginalization and the stigma experienced by Lily is supported by the extant literature. Park (2002) found that negative stereotyping meant that some voluntarily childless individuals felt the need to alter or justify their position and did so by adopting a range of mechanisms. Some rejected the pronatalist discourse by ‘condemning the condemners’ or proactively redefining voluntary childlessness as a valid social role, while others claimed biological deficiency, passed over or substituted their identity in order to preserve a ‘good’ self.

More recent findings from Australia however turn this stigma on its head: Carmichael & Whittaker (2007) found that negative attributions of childless women as selfish, for example, tended to come from the childless women themselves rather than parents or others planning to have children. Indeed, Maher & Dever (2004) found that mothers respected other women’s choices not to have children which suggests a sea-change in public perceptions of voluntary childlessness; any negativity experienced by women who choose not to have children may be self-constructed and internalized rather than it being something directed at them by others. This is a possible explanation for Lily’s experience of stigmatization; although she felt like a “freak”, we do not know from this analysis whether Lily’s social network or others in society would confirm the negative self-image she had constructed. Nevertheless, Lily’s experience of stigmatization was real and therefore contributes to her lived experience as a voluntarily childless woman. A recent Media Framing Analysis of UK news media coverage relating to voluntary childlessness found a range of positive and negative ways in which messages were framed. Some rehearsed the childless-as-other discourse that was present in earlier work (e.g. Park, 2005, 2002; Gillespie 2001) but others indicated a shift toward more positive representations of childfree women in popular culture (Giles, Shaw & Morgan, 2009). Of course, this may be due in part to the increasing number of journalists who are childfree women (e.g. Defago, 2005). Notwithstanding these moves toward a greater acceptance of childfree women and away from the dominant prejudice one might have expected not long ago, this recent evidence indicates that approaching voluntary childlessness from an experiential perspective is crucial to understand its impact on the everyday lives of individuals.

The models of mothering theme revealed the significance of Beth and Judith’s relationships with their own mothers in forging their futures as childless women. The stories they shared are in some way supported by Reading & Amatea’s (1986) finding that choosing not to have children may be the result of childhood trauma, poor parenting roles or some other negative experience of childrearing. Judith’s description of her sister’s reaction to their experience of being mothered however demonstrated that similar circumstances do not always lead to similar outcomes; and during her interview Beth expressed concern about bringing a child into the world that may be susceptible to mental health problems since she and her sister, as well her mother, had experienced them. Nevertheless, this is an issue which has been under-researched and which this analysis has confirmed requires further exploration. It is not surprising that one’s own experience of being mothered would play some part in determining whether motherhood will be a chosen life course. These data have demonstrated that this relationship is not straightforward however and that other factors such as aspirations for independence, career or health issues may also be influential. What is surprising is that previous research has focused largely on the meanings of motherhood compared to non- motherhood without addressing subjective experiences of being mothered or mothering outside of the nuclear family structure. During her interview, Judith described caring for her nieces and nephew and Beth described her experience of mothering her own mother. These findings therefore suggest the need to breakdown constructions of ‘the family’ in contemporary culture as well as understanding the structure of personal relationships and their impact on life choices we make.

The final theme, owning the choice to be childless, indicates the need to unpack the term ‘voluntary childlessness’ and furthermore to understand the place of childlessness within the lives of men and women in contemporary Western culture. Previous research has increasingly criticized the old-fashioned categorizations of ‘early articulators’ and ‘postponers’ (Callan, 1984; Callan & Que Hee, 1984). The findings of this study also question the more recent labels of ‘childless by choice’ and ‘childless by circumstance’, which is further divided into ‘thwarted mothers’ and ‘watchers and waiters’, introduced by Cannold (2004). In one respect, Lily may occupy the position of ‘thwarted mother’ because, as she said, to some degree at least her choice was taken away from her. But in order to manage this circumstance, she pro-actively occupied the position of ‘childfree by choice’. Similarly, Beth could be construed as a ‘waiter and watcher’ because she described her childlessness as something that “just happened”. However, she was not waiting until an opportunity to become a mother arose; she was already in a long-term relationship but other factors, including her mother and her marriage, had taken priority. Judith presents a dilemma because according to the reflective account given in the interview, she had at one time considered herself ‘childfree by choice’ but then later in life began to wonder whether she too had had an element of choice taken away. Nevertheless, in her conclusion that “on balance” she had made the right choice, Judith demonstrates that she does, to some degree, own that choice.

This sense of ownership is something one must negotiate within the short- and longer- term projects of life. As we have seen in these women’s accounts, an unequivocal decision is something that reflects autonomy, empowerment and a sense of assuredness about the future a decision will bring. Life is far from simple; paths cross unexpectedly, relationships breakdown, careers move in unanticipated directions, illness disrupts familial networks, all of which may overturn rational decisions made previously prompting change. Given the significance of time in understanding the nature of human experience (Heidegger, 1962), it becomes meaningless to construe voluntary childlessness as something that is static and enduring. The experiential accounts analyzed demonstrate the inherent complexities in women’s journeys toward childlessness and the multifaceted factors that contribute to paths taken. In short, these findings suggest that further research is needed to unravel the complex and interacting components of personal and social factors which have contributed to the increasing numbers of men and women deciding not to have children. Each of the accounts analyzed here mirrors the conclusion of Carmichael & Whittaker (2007):

“While ‘choice’ is unprecedented, the [..] evidence is that family formation is intimately negotiated, rationalized and experienced through dynamic interplay between material conditions, personal aspirations, gender relations, social values and biological limitations.”

The depth of meaning examined in this study demonstrates the benefits of taking an idiographic approach to such a complex phenomenon. Nevertheless, it does raise questions regarding potential future research particularly with groups not investigated here. Although some studies reviewed have included men, there is clearly a need to understand their position more fully. We do not know whether men contemplate fatherhood as something which is socially expected. Nor do we know whether masculinity is experienced as contingent upon reproduction or ‘good’ fathering. The sample in this study spanned the twenties, thirties and forties but it would be beneficial to learn whether women in their teens or early twenties and post-menopausal women feel differently about voluntary childlessness. Given the diversity of contemporary European communities, further work with men and women with different religious beliefs and from different ethnic backgrounds is also required to explore whether religiosity or cultural tradition play a role in men and women’s journeys toward childlessness. In addition, recent legal developments in civil partnership and gay adoption may impact on the life pathways available to these individuals making voluntary childlessness something worthy of investigation in this population.

Further phenomenological work is certainly needed for us to develop our understanding of voluntary childlessness as lived. It is clear that changing times have prompted a need for ‘ontological security’ (Giddens, 1991) among women; moving away from taken-for-granted gender role stereotypes brings with it the need to re-negotiate a fulfilling life path for women who choose to remain childfree. Indeed, future research needs to be sensitive and reflective in order to take into account the ways in which we are “continuously revising our own individual biographies as part of the reflexive project of the self” (Miller, 1005; 47). Taking a phenomenological approach to meaning-making, as inspired by Bruner (1990), will help to unravel the complexities uncovered in future studies.

Although this study has identified the sometimes blurred distinction between voluntary and involuntary childlessness, it would be helpful for national statistics to document reasons cited for childlessness. This would radically enhance what we know about the context of current fertility rates. This would also help contextualize what we already recognize as an ageing society. Beth’s case illustrated that providing informal care for family members may indeed impact on whether that younger generation has children of its own. Furthermore, as the Adult Social Care Workforce itself ages, the focus has to be on how it will cope with growing capacity, how it will establish new skills and attract and train new workers to care for increasing numbers of elderly people (Department of Health, 2008).

In conclusion, the findings presented have demonstrated the fluidity of the phenomenon of voluntary childlessness. It was experienced differently by these women but similarities in their life journeys have shown that voluntary childlessness emerges from a complex mix of agentic decision-making, personal histories and challenging lifestyle choices bound up within an existential need to be a woman.

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How to Use Social Proof to Boost Conversions

It’s a Saturday afternoon and you’re walking down the street looking for a place to try for lunch. Eight out of ten of the restaurants have people inside eating. The other two are completely empty. Are you more likely to go to one of the restaurants with people inside, or one of the two empty ones?

If you’re like most people, you’re likely heading into one that has people in it. You’ll probably even do it without even giving it a second thought. It’s not just a coincidence that we choose the restaurant with customers in it. It has to do with a little psychological phenomenon called social proof.

What is Social Proof?

Social proof is the notion that people will follow the actions of the masses. The idea is that since so many other people behave in a certain way, it must be the correct behavior.

Let’s go back to the restaurant example for a second. The reason you’re tempted to visit one of the restaurants with people in it instead of an empty one is because you assume the empty restaurants aren’t as good. After all, if they served good food, people would be in them, right?

That’s social proof in action. Even if the empty restaurants actually have better food and service, since more people are in the other ones, the assumption is they’re better.

Social proof isn’t new. There have been several studies conducted on the topic that show people are more likely to conform to the group decision. One classic example is the Solomon Asch conformity experiment that took place in 1951.

Asch was a psychologist who wanted to test the theory that people are likely to conform to the choice of the majority, even if the decision is clearly wrong.

For the experiment, Asch gathered male college students to participate in a line judgement task. Each group was shown images like the ones below:

They had to state which line (A,B or C) matched the target line on the left. Asch divided participants into groups of eight. However, only one of the people in each group was actually being tested. The other seven (let’s call them the insiders) agreed beforehand what their answers would be, which the real participant had no idea about.

Each person had to state which line was most like the target line. The correct answer was always obvious, and the real participant went last each time. There were a total of 18 trials, and the insiders were told to give wrong answers in 12 of them. During those 12 tests, 75% of the unknowing participants conformed and gave the wrong answer at least once.

In the other six trials when the insiders gave the right answer, the unknowing participant gave the wrong answer less than 1% of the time.

When Asch asked the unknowing participants why they conformed, he found that people follow social proof for one of two reasons:

They want to fit in with the group.

They believe the group is better informed than they are.

As you can imagine, social proof can be a very powerful tool for marketers when used correctly. By showcasing the popularity of your brand, products and services, you can make people more confident that you’re the right choice for them.

Why Social Proof is Important for Digital Marketing

The restaurant example we gave in the beginning shows how effective social proof can be in an offline setting. But you could argue that it’s even more important for online marketing efforts.

When you’re shopping in a store, you have the ability to directly compare products and see which is better. There’s less outside influence on your decision. If you’re trying to decide between a shirt from two different brands, you can feel the quality of them and try them on to see which fits better.

But when you’re shopping online, things are a bit more difficult. You almost need to rely on outside opinions to make your final decision since you don’t have the product in hand to try it yourself.

Before you buy that shirt online, you look at reviews to see what other people think of the fit and quality. Even if you personally like the style of the shirt, other customers’ experience can ultimately sway your opinion since they’re more knowledgable about the product.

Imagine if brick and mortar companies displayed the average review of every product they sold in stores. You’d probably shop a little differently and take other people’s reviews into account. This has actually already started happening. One study found that 50% of shoppers use their smartphones while shopping in stores to research products before they buy them.

Now that you know why social proof is crucial for all businesses, let’s dive into how to implement it.

How to Use Social Proof for Marketing

There are a ton of different ways social proof can be used for your marketing efforts, but they all basically revolve around showing that other people like what you’re offering, so they should too.

Some common tactics of establishing social proof are:

Positive reviews

Customer testimonials

Influencer or celebrity endorsements

Growing your social media following

Number of users or customers

Awards and recognition

Social shares (when done correctly)

Social proof is even more powerful when it comes from someone your prospect knows. According to a Nielsen survey, 82% of Americans say they seek recommendations from friends and family before making a purchase.

Ever wonder why Instagram shows you when someone you follow Likes a photo? It’s because they know the power of social proof and that if someone you follow Likes a picture, then you probably will too.

Or how about when LinkedIn sends you emails with information about your connections. Sure, part of it is to update you about people in your network, but it’s also about using social proof to get you to login or even try one of their new products.

Even if you don’t get to a level of personalization that Instagram and LinkedIn use, social proof still matters. A report from Minter found 70% of Americans seek out opinions from review sites or independent review sites before making purchases.

If you’re not using the power of social proof to your advantage, your landing pages, social media posts, product pages, blog content and other marketing channels may not be converting as well as they could be. In order to help you brainstorm some ways you can incorporate social proof into your efforts, here are seven tactics you can use, plus real life examples to learn from:

1. Positive Reviews

Are you more likely to try a restaurant with hundreds of five-star reviews on Yelp, or the one without any? Online reviews are probably the type of social proof most of us are familiar with, and they have a major impact on buying decisions.

BrightLocal found that 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. One interesting tidbit of information from BrightLocal’s survey is that people don’t just trust the first review they see. On average, consumers check 2-3 different review sites before making a decision about a business.

That means that you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket when it comes to reviews. Try to get positive reviews on all the major sites for your industry. For local businesses that might mean Yelp, Google and FourSquare. For others like software companies, aim for positive feedback on sites like G2 Crowd.

Positive reviews can be used for social proof in your marketing materials as well. If you have a five-star rating on a major review site, include it on your website or landing pages like the restaurant Agliolio does on their homepage.

Adding reviews can also be very effective social proof for Ecommerce sites. Figleaves, a UK clothing retailer, added customer reviews to individual product pages and saw a 12.5% higher conversion rate on products with reviews compared to those without them. Plus, products with 20+ reviews had a 83.8% higher conversion rate than those without any reviews.

Reviews can also work against you and provide negative social proof. If you have a bunch of poor reviews, it’ll do more harm than good. According to BrightLocal’s study, most shoppers require at least a three-star rating before they’ll consider using a company.

The key takeaway here is you should strive to get as many positive reviews as possible, and don’t be afraid to show off your ratings.

2. Customer Testimonials

Just saying that your product works isn’t enough to convince people to buy it. What does compel people to pull out their wallets however, is a testimonial from someone that has used your product and had a positive experience.

One industry in particular that has used testimonials for social proof for decades is health and fitness. Nearly every major successful weight loss program and fitness product you can think of used testimonials to establish credibility.

Weight Watchers, Orange Theory, and even the classic Tae Bo all reached the masses thanks to testimonials from people who achieved success through their programs.

Angie B. from #Orangetheory Largo, FL has been absolutely CRUSHING her fitness journey lately, so we thought we'd get some feedback regarding her OTF experience… On her favorite part of the workout: "I love that every day is different. I never get bored!" On memories: "My best memory was Hell Week. I didn't think I could do it but not I can proudly say that I did!" On motivation: "I am motivated by the change and strength of my body. I am making progress both physically and mentally. I haven't hit my goal yet but have no doubt Orangetheory Fitness will get me there!" We're with you every step of the way, Angie! Congratulations on the success so far, thanks for sharing it with us, and as always, #KeepBurning!

A post shared by Orangetheory Fitness (@otheoryfitness) on Mar 8, 2017 at 5:30am PST

So why are testimonials so effective? For one, it proves there’s some value in your product or service. For instance, Constant Contact has an entire page dedicated to testimonials from customers that have used their software and achieved results.

The key to a compelling testimonial is for it to speak directly to a problem your product or service was able to solve for the customer. Just saying “I liked the product” is too broad. Notice how the Constant Contact testimonial points out specific results they saw—more engagement for their campaigns.

We use a similar approach with our customer case studies, like this one from Trello.

Get in touch with some of your satisfied customers and see if they’re interested in giving a testimonial about your company. Or, if you’ve been reviewed by a blogger that had a great experience with your company, reach out to them and ask them to provide a few words about their experience that you can use in your marketing materials.

Remember, research has shown that people trust peer recommendations over advertisements. One study showed 92% of consumers are more likely to trust non-paid recommendations than any other type of advertising. So a good testimonial can be more helpful than the most clever copywriting you can come up with.

3. Endorsements from Celebrities & Influencers

Influencer marketing was huge in 2016 and is expected to continue on that same path in the future. As we’ve already mentioned, consumers trust earned media and public opinion more than brands themselves. So it makes sense that they’d trust the word of people with influence as well.

Influencer marketing is also very profitable. Businesses are averaging $6.50 for every $1 spent on influencer marketing, with the top 13% earning $20 or more.

Influencer marketing is particularly effective on social media:

Twitter users have a 5.2 times increase in purchase intent after seeing promotional content from influencers.

49% of of users rely on recommendations from Influencers on Twitter.

40% of people say they’ve purchased a product online after seeing it used by an influencer on social media.

Content from influencers earns more than 8 times the engagement rate of content shared directly from brands.

The best part about influencer marketing is that it’s not terribly difficult to do. Remember, influencers could be someone with a very active social media following, a celebrity, an industry expert or anyone else that has influence over a group people you’re trying to reach.

Something important to keep in mind is you want to find the right match. That means knowing your audience. If your demographic is senior citizens getting ready for retirement, teaming up with the latest teenage YouTube star might not be the best fit. If you’re unsure of who your audience is on social, you can use Sprout’s demographics report to see a breakdown of your followers.

Social proof is more effective if it comes from someone your audience trusts. So find an influencer that your target audience knows, likes and trusts, then figure out how you can work together. It could be through mentioning your brand in an Instagram post, reviewing your product on their website or writing an endorsement you can use on your site.

Check out our guide to influencer marketing for more tips on how to put together your campaign.

4. Social Media Following

While your business definitely shouldn’t rely on your number of social media followers as the ultimate measure of success, follower count can be be a form of social proof.

People like to follow the crowd—it’s the natural herd mentality. Basically, when people see there are a large group of people doing something, they’re more likely to join in.

Entrepreneur Derek Sivers did a very popular Ted Talk about how to start a movement. In it he mentions a study featuring a guy dancing by himself in the park. Then eventually one person joins him, then another and so forth. It creates a snowball effect and more people join in.

The big takeaway in regards to social proof and follower count is that people feel safer jumping on board when they see more people have joined in.

Here’s another example from the folks at Appsumo. While building up their Instagram following, they pointed out that it was much more difficult to go from 0-10K follower than it was from 10K-20K.

Having followers just for the sake of having them doesn’t really matter. This is the reason why a lot of marketers say businesses shouldn’t stress follower counts. Obviously you don’t want to just buy a bunch of fake followers to give the illusion of social proof. Focus on building a genuine following and you’ll be able to reap the benefits that come along with having an engaged audience.

5. User or Customer Count

Would you be more likely to order from the restaurant that has served billions of customers, or one that has served a couple hundred? McDonald’s bet that it would be the former, which is why they started putting messages like “Over 9 billion served” on their golden arches.

If your company has an established customer base, use your numbers as social proof. Showing how many customers, subscribers or users you have shows people think what you’re offering is valuable. That, and as humans we have a need to belong according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

People want to belong to a group. And again, we have that herd mentality that pushes us to want to join the larger crowd.You can easily add user stats into your marketing material like Canva does on their home page.

Notice how they’re not just saying “we have 10 millions users.” They’re inviting people to join the 10 million users, which creates the feeling of belonging to a community.

Another way you can use this tactic is by pointing out any popular brands that use your product or service. You can do this by adding logos like we do on our very own homepage.

If you go this route, make sure you’re pointing out brands your audience is likely to recognize. It’ll have a bigger impact and give you more validity.

Adding logos from customers for social proof is part of the strategy Voices.com used to increase conversions by 400%.

6. Awards & Recognition

People want to buy from brands they can trust. But sometimes just saying you’re trustworthy isn’t enough. Having evidence to support you is much more convincing. That’s why awards and recognition are great forms of social proof.

In a way, awards validate your brand because they come from a third party that has given you a stamp of approval. The more prestigious and recognizable the source of your award is, the more valuable it will be to list it on your site.

Former ecommerce company Bag Servant ran a test to see if adding one of the awards they won to the top of their shopping pages would result in better conversions. The control version included a button to follow them on Twitter, along with their follower count. The variation replaced that with a WOW badge, which was an award received from a well known business woman.

The variation beat out the control version with over 90% statistical confidence in all three goals they tested.

Another way to show prominence outside of just listing awards you’ve won is to mention websites you’ve been featured in like Search Engine Journal does at the bottom of their website.

If your company has been mentioned in well known media outlets, mentioning it on your site can make a great first impression on people just discovering you.

7. Do Social Shares Equal Social Proof?

Adding social buttons on your website seems like a logical way to add social proof. However, it could can also backfire in certain situations.

Database management company Calpont did some testing to see whether having social sharing buttons helped or hurt their conversions.

Originally, the company placed social sharing buttons in three locations, the top, side and bottom of each page. Their test concluded that removing the social sharing buttons from the top resulted in higher conversions.

Why was there such a difference from this one change? Well, CalPont’s content didn’t have many social shares. Most of the content had less than five Facebook shares. So the low numbers featured prominently at the top of each page turned people off.

Instead of listing your social share buttons at the top, place them on the side of the page so that they’re usable and not the focus of the page.

Make Social Proof Work for You

As you can see, social proof can work wonders for increasing your conversions. Try out the tactics above and see what type of results you can achieve.

This post How to Use Social Proof to Boost Conversions originally appeared on Sprout Social.

from SM Tips By Minnie http://sproutsocial.com/insights/social-proof/