Stop Doing Math

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About

Stop Doing Math refers to a parody infographic by meme creator Welcome To My Meme Page that suggests the reader stops doing math for a variety of nonsensical reasons. The format of the infographic inspired parodies copying the format suggesting users stop taking part in various practices, usually academic, over the course of 2020.

Origin

On April 17th, 2020, meme creator Welcome To My Meme Page posted a parody infographic to Facebook,^[1] Instagram,^[2] and Twitter,^[3] titled, "STOP DOING MATH" (shown below). The infographic describes various ridiculous reasons why people should stop doing math, including that "numbers were not supposed to be given names," and ends with the phrase, "they have played us for absolute fools." The post gained over 9,800 reactions on Facebook, 77,000 likes and 23,000 retweets, and 18,500 likes on Instagram in 10 months.

The graphics used in the meme are, in order from left to right, the absolute value of the complex Gamma function,^[11] a mesh plot of |arctan(z^(-5))|,^[12] a compound of five cubes,^[13] and the Riemann surface for the function f(z) = √z.^[14]

On April 18th, /u/Tullius19 posted the image to /r/mathmemes,^[4] garnering over 3,600 upvotes in 10 months. On May 17th, YouTuber^[5] Gianni Matragrano uploaded a video in which he reads the "STOP DOING MATH" meme in a comedic way, garnering over 513,000 views in nine months (shown below).

Spread

On April 24th, 2020, FunnyJunk^[6] user cheshirethejack uploaded an image copying the style of the "STOP DOING MATH" infographic, instead telling readers to stop using logic for various absurd reasons (shown below). On April 30th, the image was posted by Facebook^[7] user Monstrous Metaphysics Memes, garnering over 240 shares and 570 reactions in 10 months.

On May 4th, Twitter^[8] user @memecrashes uploaded a parody of the infographic titled, "STOP DOING ENGINEERING," garnering over 1,500 likes and 530 retweets in nine months (shown below, left). On May 7th, Redditor /u/Eseniasty posted a version encouraging users to stop doing p-chem to /r/chemistrymemes,^[9] garnering over 2,200 upvotes in a comparable span of time (shown below, right).

On September 19th, Redditor /u/DrManhattan96 posted a version of the meme telling users to "stop doing medicine" to /r/medicalschool,^[10] garnering over 2,200 upvotes in five months (shown below).