Did 30-Year-Olds Look More Mature In The '80s Than They Do In 2024? The Viral 'Being 30 In The '80s' Meme Explained

People on social media are claiming to notice a stark difference in the way we age thanks to an increasingly viral meme about being 30 in the '80s vs. being 30 in 2024. Since March 2024, numerous memes showing representations of how 30-year-old men purportedly looked in the '80s compared to how they look now have gone viral, inspiring debates online over whether or not there's any truth to the memes. Here's what you need to know.

What Is The '30 in the '80s vs. 30 in 2024' Meme?

In March 2024, a Facebook meme page posted an image macro comparing an image of Jet Black from Cowboy Bebop to Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion. The caption beside Jet Black reads, "Being 30 in the '80s" and the caption beside Shinji reads, "Being 30 in 2024."

The idea behind the meme is that people in the '80s, or the past in general, tended to age in appearance faster than people in 2024. The meme seemingly struck a chord with a lot of people, gaining hundreds of thousands of reactions and tens of thousands of shares in a short few months, also spreading far across social media.

How Is '30 in the '80s vs. 30 in 2024' Used In Memes?

In the past few months, the meme has spread across most social media platforms, inspiring new variations where the images of each person are replaced with similar images of people or characters who are purportedly around 30-years-old, one looking much younger than the other. While most of the examples feature anime or cartoon characters, others feature celebrities, like a meme comparing Jason Alexander to Timothee Chalamet.

The memes have also sparked some debates and hypotheses online, with many wondering if there's any truth to this apparently widely-observed phenomenon.

Some are claiming that it's a difference in food, nutrition and in general, the things people put in their bodies in the '80s compared to the 2020s, with others claiming it's because men have less testosterone these days. Others claim that the rise of things like hair-care and anti-balding products and a decrease in smoking might have to do with it. Another camp thinks the meme is simply inaccurate and cherry-picks examples to fit the narrative of the joke.

Overall, it seems like more studies would be needed to determine if this is actually a thing that's happening and why. If you read a reason for the phenomenon online, especially from someone on social media, you should probably take it with a grain of salt.

For the full history of "being 30 in the '80s vs. being 30 in 2024," be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.