Me in 2006 vs. Me in 2016

Submission 24,191

About

Me in 2006 vs. Me in 2016 is an image macro series on Twitter in which before-and-after photographs are juxtaposed alongside variations of the caption "me in 2006 vs. me in 2016." While initially launched by users posting pictures of themselves, the series was hijacked with images of various celebrities and fictional characters in early December 2016.

Origin

In October 2016, Twitter users began comparing photographs of themselves taken in 2006 with pictures taken over the last year (shown below). The earliest known tweet using the format was tweeted by @michaelhannahjr on October 2nd, featuring the caption "me in 2006 vs me now" (shown below).

Spread

On December 4th, 2016, Twitter user @TheTimeCowboy^[1] juxtaposed photographs of Shibu Inu dogs along with the caption "me in 2006 and me now" (shown below, left). The same day, Twitter user @McKelvie^[7] posted an illustration of the Pokemon Pichu next to its fully evolved form Raichu with a similar caption (shown below, right).

That evening Twitter user @xtop^[4] posted a picture of a dumpster next to a dumpster fire with the caption "Me in 2006 vs me in 2016" (shown below). Within four days, the tweet gained over 400 likes and 200 retweets. On December 6th, The Daily Dot^[2] published an article about the Twitter series.

That same day, YouTuber Tyler Oakley posted a photograph of himself from 2006 next to a more recent picture, receiving more than 20,500 likes and 2,600 retweets in 72 hours (shown below, left). On December 7th, Twitter user @BenJPierce^[5] tweeted a screen capture of the Pixar character Dory next to a photograph of a Dory plush toy, garnering upwards of 1,400 likes and 420 retweets within 24 hours (shown below, right). On December 8th, the internet news blogs UpRoxx^[3] and Smosh^[6] highlighted several notable examples of the Twitter meme.

2012 vs 2018

On January 10th, 2018, recording artist Darren Espanto posted on Instagram ^[8] posted two photos of himself in 2012 and another of him in 2018 in juxtaposition. The post was captioned, "Post a pic of you from 2012 & 2018 to see how much you've changed." The post (shown below) received more than 44,000 likes in three months.

Over the next several months, people continued to post comparisons of themselves in 2012 and 2018, occasionally calling the transformation glo ups (example below, left). Others, used the time period to post transformations of cultural artifacts, such as promotional items of The Avengers (shown below, center).^[9] Additionally, the designation was used for forms of parody. On March 24th, Twitter^[10] user @mr_tdf posted a picture of twin cartoon characters next to a picture of human twins. The post (shown below, right) received more than 2,000 retweets and 2,100 likes in four days.