The most shared meme in internet history started as a seemingly innocuous stock photograph by Antonio Guillem. Originally titled “Disloyal man walking with his girlfriend looking amazed at another seductive girl, the Distracted boyfriend meme’s earliest known labeled version was shared in a Turkish Facebook group dedicated to progressive rock. It labeled the man as Phil Collins turning away from progressive rock (his girlfriend) toward pop music (the woman in red).

The meme went truly viral in mid August 2017 when users on Twitter, Reddit and beyond started applying the format to everything imaginable.

A big early boost came from posts like “me” being distracted by the solar eclipse while ignoring specific warnings about eye damage. From there it became the ultimate template for any scenario involving temptation, betrayal, shifting priorities or hypocrisy.

The Distracted Boyfriend is a quintessential example of the versatility of the meme in expressing a culture of ideas to a wide array of consumers through a collectively accepted lens. In the distracted boyfriend we can hear the first syllables of a new digital language rising from the chaotic cacophony of the world wide web.