Internet memes

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First World Problems

This exhibit selects 2011 for the image-macro wave, not the invention of the phrase or the date of the stock photograph. Know Your Meme records the subreddit opening on January 19, 2011 and a BuzzFeed image-macro collection on March 23, 2011; it also describes earlier uses of the phrase and online jokes. One recognizable variant places trivial complaints over a stock photograph of a woman with her hand against her face, but it is not the only template. The joke depends on a mismatch between dramatic presentation and low stakes. The historical label can flatten differences between countries and dismiss real distress; it is presented as a meme title, not a classification endorsed by this archive. The photograph is a performed stock-image expression, not evidence of the subject experiencing a captioned event. Representative preview only; no claim of subject endorsement or consent to a particular caption. Photography and likeness rights remain uncleared for public reuse. Private research preview only.