Summary

This Generation Was the First to Be Raised Online refers to an exploitable image featuring a character with rainbow hair and a Tumblr shirt, with the caption, "This generation was the first to be raised online", listing various sites and what they supposedly taught the original poster. The format originally rose to popularity on Tumblr and 4chan in early-to-mid-2014, and continued to maintain a mild presence, regaining popularity in 2020 through 2023.

Origin

At a date believed to be in 2012, Tumblr user Gundham^[2] commissioned fan art of Mother 3 from sharkie-19^[3][4], featuring Claus and Lucas in Sunflower Fields during a clear and starry night (shown below).

At a date no later than April 10th, 2014, now-deactivated Tumblr^[5] user the-boy-in-the-trapper-hat posted a traced version of the above art, recoloring Claus to have rainbow hair and wear a Tumblr shirt, and captioned it with the text "This generation was the first to be raised online", listing 10 websites and what they allegedly taught the poster, and ending with "And I wouldn't want it any other way" (shown below) The post received 7497 likes and 8417 reblogs in 9 years.

This generation was the first to be raised online
Google taught me to be curious
Tumblr taught me to be inspired
Vine taught me to laugh
Deviantart taught me to aspire
Blogger taught me to reach out
Facebook taught me to make friends
Instagram taught me to share
Etsy taught me to be proud
Twitter taught me to listen
And I wouldn't want it any other way

Spread

Over the following years, the original image was edited in numerous ways mocking its intended message. Many of the variations either expressed the negative effects the websites had on the poster, or the message was changed entirely to something ironic. For example, on December 30th, 2018, Know Your Meme user Ted Burges posted an edit that gained over 240 likes (shown below, left). On April 11th, 2014, Tumblr user @wildworkingbluebottles^[6] posted an edit mocking each website, gaining over 8,900 notes (shown below, right).

Variations began appearing in the early 2020s. For example, on January 26th, 2023, Tumblr user yharnam-is-a-fuck^[7] posted a variation about Bloodborne bosses, gaining over 3,000 notes in two months (shown below, left). On July 28th, 2020, Tumblr user socialmediapersonified^[1] posted a lewd edit that gained over 200 notes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

External References