About

Seen Notification is a notification displayed in various messenger applications indicating that the recipient has viewed a message sent to them. The notifications are often parodied in image macros mocking awkward conversations in which the person viewing the message does not wish to respond.

Origin

On September 9th, 2013, Imgur user VeggieNinja93 posted a photograph of a sad-looking kitten below a "Seen" notification along with the caption "I'm sorry I bother you / with my friendship" (shown below).

Spread

On February 8th, 2014, Redditor CorporalCatskin^[1] submitted an image macro featuring screen captures from the film Breakfast at Tiffany's in which Audrey Hepburn is captioned with a "Seen" notification after a man tells her "I love you" (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post gained over 2,600 points (90% upvoted) and 200 comments.

On March 29th, Redditor drpooh submitted a 4-panel comic in which The Simpsons character Ralph Wiggum sends Lisa Simpsons a message and is left on "seen" without a response (shown below). Prior to being archived, the post accumulated more than 2,700 points (91% upvoted) and 190 comments on /r/funny.^[4]

On April 20th, 2015, BuzzFeed^[3] reposted the Breakfast at Tiffany's image macro in an article about the extension Facebook Unseen.

On November 9th, 2018, an image macro comparing the responses "Lol", "K" and a "Read" notification along with pictures of various Mario Kart shells was submitted to ,a href=-/memes/dank-memes>/r/dankmemes,^[2] where it received upwards of 890 points (98% upvoted) within 11 hours.

Search Interest

External References