About

Tired / Wired is a phrasal template used to express the fading cultural significance of one subject in regards to a newer one (similar to Shot, Chaser).

Origin

The earliest use of using the words "Tired" and "Wired" as a type of social barometer comes from the first issue of Wired^[1] magazine, published on April 1st, 1993. The magazine launched the feature, which became a staple of the publication, with a list of things that were now considered culturally passé, or tired, and those that they considered fresh, or wired (shown below).

Spread

In 2002, Wired magazine added a third column to the list, "Expired."^[3]

On January 6th, 2006, blogger^[4] Bryan Jones posted one of the earliest uses of the phrase as a meme to describe the grade school process, posting a chart of Wired, Tired, and Expired (shown below). In the post, he writes, "I am gratuitously borrowing this meme from Wired magazine but it seemed sooo appropriate."

The phrase has since become a phrasal template on Twitter. On March 14th, 2007, Twitter^[2] user @hildjj tweeted, "Tired: interoperability testing. Wired: interoperability Simplicity is a feature. The post (shown below) is the earliest known iteration of the template.

On December 29th, 2015, Twitter^[5] user @caseyjohnston tweeted, "tired: new years eve party wired: new years day party where everyone cuddles in their pajamas and eats. The post (shown below, left) received more than 40 likes in two years.

Two years later, on December 3rd, 2017, Twitter^[6] user @thatcoleslaw tweeted, "tired: good character design is when u can reduce a character to silhouettes and still have them be recognisable wired: good character design is when theyre still recognisable when reimagined as animal crossing characters." The post (shown below, center) received more than 3,000 retweets and 7,000 likes in one week.

Six days later, Twitter^[7] user @taizou_hori tweeted "tired: fuck buddies wired:" above a picture of the logo for "Nutting Associates." The post (shown below, right) received more than 4,500 retweets and 13,000 likes in three days, making it among the most popular posts using the format on Twitter.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References