Time Flies By When Your Life Is Falling Apart
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About
Time Flies By When Your Life Is Falling Apart is a caption used in memes which announce the approach of the next year, season or month and convey that the author of the meme did not expect the time to pass so fast because of losing control over their life. Originating from a viral tweet, the phrase gained popularity with several popular meme accounts on X in 2023.
Origin
On May 23rd, 2023, X[1] user @777jorgeivan wrote, "June is next week? Time flies when your life is falling apart." The post (shown below) gained over 86,400 reposts and 369,000 likes in one year.
Spread
On August 26th, 2022, Facebook[2] page 2K made a similar post, writing, "september is next week ? time flies by when your life is falling apart." The post gained over 810 reactions and 310 shares in one year.
The phrase first achieved popularity as a caption format in October 2022, when on October 26th, 2023, meme X[3] account Bibawen (@asimbawe) posted a Succession clip paired with the phrase. The video (shown below) received over 3,700 reposts and 20,500 likes in ten months.
— Bibawen (@asimbawe) October 26, 2022
Following the viral success of the post, Bibawen posted new versions of the meme monthly on X[4] and Instagram.[5]
On January 27th, 2023, a Whisper meme featuring actor Ryan Gosling covered in blood, posted by an unknown user, saw viral spread (shown below, left).[6]
This version of the format achieved popularity as a recaption format: for example, on February 21st, 2023, X[7] meme account @shitpostbale posted a recaptioned version that received over 6,600 reposts and 42,700 likes in six months (shown below, right).
Various Examples
— Bibawen (asimbawe) <a href="https://twitter.com/asimbawe/status/1650825915033694208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 25, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true"><p lang="zxx" dir="ltr"><a href="https://t.co/sK6X2W1XBN">pic.twitter.com/sK6X2W1XBN</a></p>— Bibawen (asimbawe) August 23, 2023
