New Year, New Me

About

New Year, New Me refers to a catchphrase used to caption memes made before and after New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. The phrase infers that the person will change after New Year's, likely in accordance with their New Year's resolution. However, the phrase is most often used ironically by portraying no intention to change. Therefore, variants of the phrase such as New Year, Same Me have emerged that infer the satirical counter-concept. "New Year, New Me" memes have trended across social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Reddit every December and January since 2014.

Origin

The use of "New Year, New Me" predates internet history, however, it'd later surface in social media as soon as social media platforms like Twitter surfaced in the late 2000s. Prior to 2014, there was no viral usage of "New Year, New Me" on Twitter despite many users tweeting it every year just before January. On December 24th, 2014, the Twitter^[1] account of 9GAG tweeted an image of Erica Dixon from Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta with the caption, "When I start seeing those 'new year, new me' tweets," gaining roughly 2,900 likes in nine years (shown below). It is the first viral instance of a meme using the catchphrase.

Spread

In the week following, multiple "New Year, New Me" memes surfaced on Twitter in anticipation for the year 2015. For instance, on December 31st, 2014, musician George Ezra posted to Twitter,^[2] "New year new me xo," as the caption of a strange image of him in which he's bald, gaining roughly 2,600 likes in nine years (shown below, left). On the same day, Twitter^[3] user scump posted a similar tweet, gaining roughly 3,200 likes in nine years (shown below, right).

Other social media platforms started hosting "New Year, New Me" memes as January 2016 approached. For instance, on December 29th, 2015, Viner ^[4] DemetriusHarmon posted a Vine called "New Year new me" in which the character turned into a vacuum, gaining roughly 4.1 million loops and 81,300 likes in eight years (shown below).

Continuing into the late 2010s and early 2020s, memes about "New Year, New Me" spread to all social media platforms. For instance, on January 20th, 2020, the Instagram^[5] account hoodclips posted a video with the catchphrase, using it to caption a scene from SpongeBob where a fish character is bored in every daily activity. The post received roughly 742,400 views and 120,800 likes (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References