#Blessed

About

#Blessed is a hashtag widely used on social media to express gratitude for fortunate circumstances in everyday life. It has been also used ironically by those who perceive the hashtag as being too self-gratuitous or humblebragging.

Origin

The exact origin of #hashtag blessed is unknown. On January 5th, 2011, the music blog PigeonsAndPlanes^[1] highlighted a Vice documentary about rapper Lil B and referenced “#blessed” when expressing gratitude for the rapper’s work.

“Personally, I am glad that Lil B exists. I think he is #rare, very #based, and we are all #blessed for his presence.”

Spread

On December 16th, 2012, the college student blog Honestly, Mansbee^[2] published an post titled “I hate when white girls user the hashtag blessed.” On November 25th, 2013, Redditor Xx420_YoLoSwaG_420xX submitted a multi-pane Parks and Recreation comic titled “#blessed,” featuring screen captures from a scene in which the character Tom Haverford reads a “#blessed” tweet (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gained over 2,500 votes (86% upvoted) and 100 comments on the /r/funny^[3] subreddit.

On December 9th, 2013, “#blessed” was featured in a list titled “15 Twitter Jokes We Can Retire Now” on the pop culture blog Complex.^[4] On May 2nd, 2014, The New York Times^[5] published an article about the growing backlash to the hashtag. Over the next two months, several news sites published articles about the hashtag’s online reception, including Slate,^[6] The Huffington Post^[7]^[8] and Elite Daily.^[9] On September 25th, the men’s interest blog Details^[12] highlighted a photo of rapper Drake with a #blessed prayer hands emoji tattoo (shown below).

On October 19th, BuzzFeed^[10] published a compilation #blessed tweets. On December 12th, a second compilation was featured on the viral content site.^[11]