About

"I Don't Know Who Needs To Hear This" is a phrase used to qualify a statement of advice, opinion, or suggestion, in a similar vein to the use of the phrase "for what it's worth" (FWIW). On Twitter, the phrase is used to introduce almost any tweet to create suspense and connote the importance of the point to someone's well-being.

Origin

Although the origin of the phrase is unknown, the first post using the phrase on Twitter was made by @theoQuotes^[1] (shown below). On December 3rd, 2013, they tweeted, "God didn't lie to you! If God said it, then God will do it! I don't know who needs to hear this, but God's gonna do it!" (shown below). Many of the early Twitter uses of the phrase were linked to religious inspirational messages.

Spread

On January 7th, 2017 @RavenMSmith^[2] posted another religious tweet using the phrase, "I don't know who needs to hear this tonight, but Jesus LOVES you. Don't forget that" (shown below, left). Soon the phrase was used outside of religious communities. On October 22nd, 2018, Redditor DrunkHighFives used the phrase in a caption for a wholesome meme (shown below, right) posted to /r/wholesomememes^[3]. The post gained over 1,000 points (97% upvoted) in a year.

That same day @KhadiDon^[5] tweeted, "I don’t know who needs to hear this but you didn’t wipe good enough" (shown below, left). The tweet accumulated 500 retweets and over 1,000 likes in a year. By 2019, the phrase became used for almost any bold statement made to Twitter. On April 25th, 2019, rapper Wale^[4] tweeted, "I don’t know who needs to hear this , but jelly 100 percent belongs on a TurkeyBaconEggNCheese Sandwich" (shown below). The tweet gained 5,200 retweets and over 22,200 likes in a day.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References