Tell Me Without Telling Me

About

Tell Me Without Telling Me, also known as #TheTellMeChallenge, is a social game in which social media users ask others to share personal opinions and beliefs without using direct mentions of the subject.

Origin

On May 28th, 2019, Twitter ^[1] user @myjinseuphoria tweeted, "If you see this, you are obligated to tell me your bias without telling me their names." The tweet received more than 350 likes in less than two years (shown below).

Spread

The meme didn't begin to spread until the following year. On November 18th, 2020, Twitter^[2] user @mahabagin tweeted, "Tell me your University Series best boy without telling me their names." The tweet received more than 475 likes 135 retweets in less than one month (shown below, left).

The following month, the meme went viral on Twitter. On December 5th, Twitter^[3] user @fluffyfitz tweeted, "tell me you're lgbt without telling me you're lgbt." The tweet received more than 53,000 likes and 29,000 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below, right).

Shortly after the tweet spread, brand-associated Twitter accounts began joining the game. For example, the following day, the beer company Michelob shared a variation, asking users to respond (shown below).^[4]

On TikTok, the game also went viral. As of December 16th, 2020 the hashtags #tellmechallenge^[5] and #tellmewithouttellingme^[6] has more than 6.9 million views and 3.8 million views (examples below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References