Throwback Thursday

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About

"Throwback Thursday" is an Internet theme day observed on every Thursday during which people share an old photograph of themselves via social networking sites and image-sharing communities, most notably through photo-sharing mobile app Instagram.

Origin

Throwback has been associated with things that are deemed classic or vintage since as early as 2003, when it was first defined on Urban Dictionary.^[1] The earliest known mention of "Throwback Thursday" can be found in the title of a series of revamped retro cartoon characters that were illustrated by animator Saxton Moore and uploaded onto his blog^[2] in January 2006 (shown below).

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In July 2006, the sneaker fan blog Nice Kicks launched their own Throwback Thursday series^[3], highlighting a selection of once-popular vintage sneakers. The first post was dedicated to the Nike Air Trainer SCII^[4] (originally released in 1991) and the series continued through June 2012. Also in July 2006, a Throwback Thursday-themed football game was held at Georgia Tech in which players wore 1970s-style uniforms.^[5] In 2011, the phrase began to gain more popularity in the blogosphere^[6]^[7]^[8] as it became synonymous with events and objects that are no longer culturally relevant.

By November 2011^[11], ten months after Instagram had introduced hashtags, posting old photos of oneself on Thursdays on the photo sharing site had became an established trend via the hashtags #throwbackthursday^[9] and #tbt.^[10] As of May 2013, these tags boast 24.2 million and 42.2 million photos respectively. Many people also shared these Instagram photos to other social networks, resulting in more than 90,000 uses of #throwbackthursday on Twitter in the first week of January 2012.^[12] Later that month, Throwback Thursday was first defined on Urban Dictionary.^[13]

A number of celebrities began to partake in the practice, including Kim Kardashian^[14] who began sharing Throwback Thursday photos on her social media sites^[21] in February 2012. The same month, a Yahoo! Answers^[22] user asked about the meaning behind the phrase Throwback Thursday, and in June, a similar question was posed on Ask.com.^[15] By July 2012, #tbt hosted more than 9.1 million photos and was the 15th most popular tag on Instagram.^[23] #tbt has also been included on lists of the most important Instagram hashtags to know compiled by communications consultant Arik Hanson^[24] and the Daily Dot.^[25] In May 2013, the hashtag was discussed in an in-depth article by Digital Trends.^[26]

Outside of Instagram, dozens of groups dedicated to sharing personal vintage photos have been created on Facebook^[16], ranging from 20 to 200 members as of May 2013. Both #throwbackthursday and #tbt are popular tags on Tumblr^[17]^[18] and Twitter.^[19]^[20]