My Toxic Trait

About

My Toxic Trait is a phrasal template used by meme creators, Twitter users and TikTokers who relay a character trait that is humorously toxic, similar to red flag memes. It started in mid-2018 on Twitter with earnest undertones but soon became ironic in memes that undercut the seriousness of the Instagram Quote Rebuttals that started using it in the following years.

Origin

On June 4th, 2018, Twitter^[1] user kieraaa_x3 posted a tweet reading, "You gotta be mature enough to understand that you have some toxic traits too. It’s not always the other person," earning roughly 132,400 likes and 69,800 retweets over the course of four years (shown below, left). Inspired by her tweet, users on the platform started to share what they thought were their toxic traits. On June 11th, 2018, Twitter^[2] user _tonironi quote retweeted kieraaa_x3's tweet, starting her tweet with, "My toxic trait is…" Twitter user _tonironi only received four likes in four years but nonetheless was the first to use the snowclone (shown below, right).

Spread

Going into July 2018, Twitter^[3] started using "My toxic trait…" to start their tweets in more abundance. On August 1st, 2018, Twitter^[4] user jaaymuse1 tweeted, "i overthink everything.. thats my toxic trait," earning roughly 1,400 likes in four years (shown below, left). On August 7th, 2018, Twitter^[5] user Valeriecc__ posted a tweet with an earnest sentiment, gaining roughly 60,100 likes over the course of four years (shown below, right).

Valeriecc__'s tweet specifically popularized "My toxic trait …" tweets going forward. For instance, on August 26th, 2018, Twitter^[6] user sighbrattt posted a tweet that started with the question, "My toxic trait?" and earned roughly 62,900 likes in four years.

Despite all the earnest tweets that surfaced using the phrasal template in August 2018, some ironic use of the snowclone started to appear as well. For instance, on April 19th, 2018, Twitter^[7] user kobychill tweeted, "my toxic trait is that i really like the song despacito," earning over 530 likes in four years and effectively being the first on the platform to post a non-serious "toxic trait" (shown below).

On September 24th, 2018, the Instagram^[8] account sarcasm_only posted a "toxic trait" quote, earning roughly 144,200 likes in four years. Quote rebuttals using "My toxic trait…" as a reference appeared en masse going into 2019, like on January 23rd, 2019, the official Instagram^[9] page of the clothing brand Forever 21 posted a quote rebuttal with the phrasal template, earning roughly 62,300 likes in three years.

On February 3rd, 2019, Twitter^[10] user ufobri tweeted, "my toxic trait is being american," earning roughly 23,100 likes in three years. On July 26th, 2019, Twitter^[11] user kozyaus made fun of people who posted "My toxic trait…" tweets with a video of Drake, earning roughly 16,400 likes in three years (shown below).

"my toxic trait is that i love too hard 😫" pic.twitter.com/jgObZJtC5Y

— aus (@kozyaus) July 26, 2019

Starting in 2021, users on TikTok started to post videos about their toxic traits. For instance, on January 8th, 2021, TikToker^[12] amararshad posted a TikTok that earned roughly 399,900 plays and 78,400 likes in 14 months (shown below, left). On December 24th, 2021, TikToker^[13] morganfreemansknuckle posted a video that earned roughly 1.1 million plays and 267,200 likes in six months (shown below, right).

Overall, as memes and content about toxic traits continued into 2022, the underlying sentiments became increasingly less serious and more ironical. For instance, on March 25th, 2022, the Instagram^[14] page memezar posted an iteration about thinking one could do the challenges in Wipeout! effortlessly, earning roughly 460,200 likes in two months (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References