Laravel 5.0 eloquent not adding timestamps for created_at and updted_at

I am having this code in my controller

foreach($blogTags as $blogTagsData) 
      {
            $data[] = array(
          'blog_id' => $postBlog->id,
          'user_id' => '1',  
          'tag_id' => $blogTagsData[0]);

      }
      BlogTag::insert($data);

Where $blogTags will have 1,2,3 like that.

But when i do the insert it is not inserting the timestamps in the created_at field and updated_at field..

Even i have this inside my model

public $timestamps = true;

What is the mistake i am doing,,,

Is only doing the following way only option ?

$data['created_at']= \Carbon\Carbon::now()->toDateTimeString();
$data['updated_at']= \Carbon\Carbon::now()->toDateTimeString();

Or is there any better way to include the laravel default timestamp insertion ..

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