About

Man Blowing Dust Off Book is a stock image and meme of an elderly man wearing glasses blowing the dust out of an open book. The photo was uploaded to Shutterstock as early as May 2011. It was popularized as a reaction image and a series of image macros throughout 2025, particularly on TikTok, as a way of calling something out for being old or outdated.

Origin

On May 15th, 2011, an image titled "Senior man blowing dust of a very old book isolated in black" was uploaded to Shutterstock.^[1] The image shows an old man blowing dust out of an open book.

The image started to inspire memes as early as 2020, although it is unclear who made the first meme using the image.

One of the earliest known examples was posted by Redditor u/nnyland to the /r/RaidShadowLegends^[2] subreddit, captioned, "Me dusting off my Royal Huntsman now that he'll actually be usable on auto," garnering roughly 48 upvotes in five years.

Spread

The stock photo meme became increasingly popularized throughout 2025 as it continued to spread on social media platforms.

On June 27th, 2025, Redditor u/Lostchild34 posted a version of the meme to the /r/Teenagers^[3] subreddit captioned, "What is the most wild thing a teacher has said to you?" garnering over 1,400 upvotes and 1,200 comments answering the prompt.

On July 6th, TikToker^[4] @poof_ac posted a meme using an AI-generated voice over the image, garnering over 85,000 views in two months.

On August 4th, TikToker^[5] @speedrunfallguy posted a Fall Guys video and TikToker @108.jxli posted the meme, writing "Fall Guys," implying that the game is outdated, garnering over 21,000 likes in a month.

On September 16th, 2025, X^[6] user @reinmyhrt posted a version of the meme referencing old Squid Game memes, garnering over 4,000 likes in three days.

Various Examples

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Search Interest

External References