Is Not a Personality Trait

About

Is Not A Personality Trait, sometimes phrased as Not a Substitute for a Personality, is a common insult online used to describe someone who uses a popular opinion about a piece of culture as an example of their originality.

Origin

The origin of the meme is unknown. It is likely that people used the insult in common speech prior to its emergence on the internet. Some of the earliest examples appeared on Twitter in 2009. On May 26th, 2009, Twitter^[1] user @CharliePabst tweeted, "There's a huge misunderstanding between being personal and showing personality. Watching American Idol is NOT a personality trait" (shown below).

Spread

Over the next decade, the phrase continued to rise in usage. For example, on November 30th, 2012, Twitter^[2] user @juliepoptart tweeted, "diet coke is not a personality trait" (shown below, left). Two years later, on September 5th, 2014, Twitter^[3] user @somecleverthing tweeted, "FYI: Liking pizza is not a personality trait" (shown below, right).

In 2018, posts using the snowclone began increasing in popularity. On May 18th, 2018, for example, Twitter^[4] user @NickNMedia tweeted, "having 'unpopular' opinions is not a personality trait, babe." The tweet received more than 3,400 likes and 700 retweets in less than three years (shown below, left).

That year, on December 14th, Twitter^[5] user @prettyflaca tweeted, "Why do girls think they’re so scandalous by eating lmao. Eating is not a personality trait 😂." The tweet received more than 188,000 likes and 35,000 retweets in less than two years (shown below, right).

The following year, the trend grew. On February 19th, 2019, the website StudyBreaks.com^[5] published, "Your Obsession with The Office Isn't a Personality Trait." They write:

“_____ isn’t a personality trait” tweets have been rising in popularity over the past month or so. The formula involves calling out a certain passion or interest that usually consumes the people who have it. It seems I cannot go a day without scrolling past one on my feed. Generally, I enjoy them but every time I see one, I can’t help but feel that they pose the question: Is it possible to love something so, so, much that it becomes a part of you?

On March 9th, 2019, Urban Dictionary ^[6] user gabriel.no defined the phrase, "Something unique that really defines you as a person."

On October 24th, 2019, Redditor OneTerrificLamp posted about the meme in the /r/unpopularopinion^[7] subreddit.

I feel that thinking about “personality traits” is super cringey and useless, something only people that are OBSSESED with their self image would get involved in. It’s like people see themselves as characters in a game with stats and titles. Rather than directly experiencing the world they’re caught up in their own idea of their experiencing apparatus.

The following year, on September 15th, the website StayHipp^[8] published an article about the meme.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References