I Was Today Years Old

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Part of a series on Internet Slang. [View Related Entries]

About

I Was Today Years Old is an online expression typically used in the title of a post or discussion thread when introducing an interesting fact or trivia that had been previously unknown to the poster, in a similar vein to the phrase "did you know?" and Today I Learned. In 2018, the expression began to introduce ironic posts that include a false "fact."

Origin

On September 10th, 2015, Twitter user @stacilyncharles^[1] tweeted the first known usage of the expression saying, "I was today years old when I learned I had been wearing the wrong size bra my entire life" (shown below, left). After June 17th, 2018, the phrase went viral after Twitter user @gabrielalvper^[2] tweeted an image of a Staples saying, "I was today years old when I found out the 'L' in 'Staples' in really a half open staple" (shown below, right). The tweet garnered over 70 likes in two years.

Spread

In June 2018, Twitter user @todayyearsoldig^[5] began tweeting using the expression format and has gained over 64,900 followers in two years. That summer, various media outlets published lists of tweets using the phrase, including Buzzfeed.^[6] On January 13th, 2020, Redditor riellycastle posted an image showing someone green Gatorade into a pot of Cauliflower captioned, "I was today years old when I found out how broccoli is made" to r/memes^[3] (shown below, left). The post accumulated over 9,700 points (97% upvoted) in six months. On February 26th, Redditor alykalyk posted another false claim using the expression to r/cursedmemes^[4] that received over 250 points (98% upvoted) in five months.

On April 1st, 2020, TikToker marriage_counselling uploaded a video about peeling potatoes using the hashtag #TodayYearsOld and accumulated over 591,000 likes in three months (show below, left). On May 6th, TikToker ambabrightman4 uploaded another post using the hashtag that garnered over 527,400 likes in two months (show below, center). Another popular TikTok example was uploaded on June 12th by TikToker foreigndisgrace that received over 299,300 likes in a month (show below, right). In July 2020, the hashtag #TodayYearsOld trended on TikTok.