Todays Teens

2017Exploitable image macrosemi-active

Also known as: Two Doors Meme · Today's Teens Two Doors

Today's Teens is an exploitable image macro featuring a building with two labeled doors, one packed with a crowd and the other nearly empty, paired with the caption "Today's Teens." The format first appeared in September 2017 on Facebook and quickly spread as a way to joke about perceived generational preferences, with users swapping the door labels to comment on everything from music taste to lifestyle choices.

Overview

The meme uses a simple cartoon showing a building facade with two doors. One door has a long line of people waiting to enter, while the other stands empty or has a single person. The text "Today's Teens" appears alongside the image, and each door is labeled with contrasting options. The crowded door represents the popular (often frivolous or negative) choice, while the empty door represents the "better" or neglected alternative. The humor comes from the exaggerated contrast between the two options, letting creators editorialize about what young people supposedly prioritize1.

The format works because the visual is instantly readable. No matter what labels get slapped on the doors, the joke structure stays the same: teens are choosing the wrong thing in droves.

The earliest version of the underlying cartoon appeared on April 19, 2012, when the Facebook page Ideas For Life posted a strip by an unknown artist. In that version, two counters are attached to a building. One reads "Those who have time: stand in line here" with a single person waiting, and the other reads "Those who don't have time: stand in line here" with a massive crowd behind it. The image picked up over 670 likes and 400 shares over the following years1.

On May 15, 2016, political blogger Daniel J. Mitchel posted a modified version to his WordPress blog. This version repurposed the crowd-and-building artwork into a two-door format, labeling the building "socialism sign up here." The left door read "work hard keep half" (empty) and the right door read "no work free stuff" (crowded). Writer Michael Yon shared the same image to his Facebook page that day, where it picked up over 2,500 reactions and 2,700 shares1.

The "Today's Teens" version appeared on September 27, 2017, when Facebook meme page Woolies Memes photoshopped the image to remove the building details, keeping only the two doors with new labels and adding the "Today's Teens" caption to the right side. This is the earliest known instance of the format that would go viral1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Facebook (Ideas For Life page, original cartoon), Facebook / Woolies Memes ("Today's Teens" format)
Key People
Unknown, Woolies Memes
Date
2017

The earliest version of the underlying cartoon appeared on April 19, 2012, when the Facebook page Ideas For Life posted a strip by an unknown artist. In that version, two counters are attached to a building. One reads "Those who have time: stand in line here" with a single person waiting, and the other reads "Those who don't have time: stand in line here" with a massive crowd behind it. The image picked up over 670 likes and 400 shares over the following years1.

On May 15, 2016, political blogger Daniel J. Mitchel posted a modified version to his WordPress blog. This version repurposed the crowd-and-building artwork into a two-door format, labeling the building "socialism sign up here." The left door read "work hard keep half" (empty) and the right door read "no work free stuff" (crowded). Writer Michael Yon shared the same image to his Facebook page that day, where it picked up over 2,500 reactions and 2,700 shares1.

The "Today's Teens" version appeared on September 27, 2017, when Facebook meme page Woolies Memes photoshopped the image to remove the building details, keeping only the two doors with new labels and adding the "Today's Teens" caption to the right side. This is the earliest known instance of the format that would go viral1.

How It Spread

The photoshopped "Today's Teens" template took off on Facebook through late 2017 and into 2018, spreading across multiple platforms.

One of the first big hits came on October 8, 2017, when the Facebook page Nondeterministic Memes for NP Complete Teens posted an exploited version. That post pulled in over 9,200 reactions and 1,200 shares over roughly three years1. The page name itself reflects a broader trend of the era: Facebook groups and pages using the "X Memes for Y Teens" naming format, a convention that produced dozens of niche community pages. One of the largest was New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT), a Facebook group founded in March 2017 that grew to over 229,000 members and earned coverage from CityLab and The Guardian2.

By 2019, the Today's Teens format was still generating engagement. On September 28, 2019, the Facebook page I Hate Mumble Rap posted a version with the crowded door labeled "XXXTENTACION MOONLIGHT INDIAN REMIX" and the empty door labeled "church," earning over 2,800 reactions and 2,900 shares1. Another version from the page Fucking With People on January 29 used "church" and "gay" as the door labels, pulling over 1,500 reactions and 3,200 shares1.

The template remained popular because it required minimal editing skill. Anyone could slap new text on the two doors and post a hot take about generational behavior.

How to Use This Meme

The format is straightforward:

1

Start with the base image: a building with two doors and a crowd entering the right-hand door while the left door sits empty.

2

Label the crowded door with something popular, trendy, or perceived as a bad choice (e.g., a viral song, social media, junk food).

3

Label the empty door with something "better" that teens supposedly ignore (e.g., church, reading, going outside).

4

Add the "Today's Teens" text to the side of the image.

Cultural Impact

The Today's Teens meme arrived during a peak period of "Memes for Teens" culture on Facebook. Throughout 2017 and 2018, hundreds of Facebook groups adopted the "X Memes for Y Teens" naming convention, creating niche communities around everything from urban planning to academic disciplines2. NUMTOT alone inspired members to pursue urban planning careers and even endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in January 20202. While Today's Teens wasn't directly responsible for this naming trend, the two movements fed off each other, and the meme's name fit neatly into the zeitgeist of teen-labeled Facebook humor.

The format also tapped into a long tradition of generational complaint memes. Like "Kids These Days" cartoons dating back decades, Today's Teens gave people an easy visual shorthand to editorialize about youth culture. Its simplicity made it one of the more durable exploitable templates from the 2017-2019 Facebook meme era.

Fun Facts

The original 2012 cartoon that inspired the format was about time management, not generational differences at all1.

The 2016 political version circulated primarily on right-wing Facebook pages before the meme got stripped of its political framing and turned into the "Today's Teens" template1.

One of the earliest viral versions came from a page named after computational complexity theory (Nondeterministic Memes for NP Complete Teens), showing how deeply niche the "Memes for Teens" Facebook ecosystem ran1.

The "Memes for Teens" Facebook group naming convention spawned between 20 and 50 spinoff groups from NUMTOT alone2.

Frequently Asked Questions

Todays Teens

2017Exploitable image macrosemi-active

Also known as: Two Doors Meme · Today's Teens Two Doors

Today's Teens is an exploitable image macro featuring a building with two labeled doors, one packed with a crowd and the other nearly empty, paired with the caption "Today's Teens." The format first appeared in September 2017 on Facebook and quickly spread as a way to joke about perceived generational preferences, with users swapping the door labels to comment on everything from music taste to lifestyle choices.

Overview

The meme uses a simple cartoon showing a building facade with two doors. One door has a long line of people waiting to enter, while the other stands empty or has a single person. The text "Today's Teens" appears alongside the image, and each door is labeled with contrasting options. The crowded door represents the popular (often frivolous or negative) choice, while the empty door represents the "better" or neglected alternative. The humor comes from the exaggerated contrast between the two options, letting creators editorialize about what young people supposedly prioritize1.

The format works because the visual is instantly readable. No matter what labels get slapped on the doors, the joke structure stays the same: teens are choosing the wrong thing in droves.

The earliest version of the underlying cartoon appeared on April 19, 2012, when the Facebook page Ideas For Life posted a strip by an unknown artist. In that version, two counters are attached to a building. One reads "Those who have time: stand in line here" with a single person waiting, and the other reads "Those who don't have time: stand in line here" with a massive crowd behind it. The image picked up over 670 likes and 400 shares over the following years1.

On May 15, 2016, political blogger Daniel J. Mitchel posted a modified version to his WordPress blog. This version repurposed the crowd-and-building artwork into a two-door format, labeling the building "socialism sign up here." The left door read "work hard keep half" (empty) and the right door read "no work free stuff" (crowded). Writer Michael Yon shared the same image to his Facebook page that day, where it picked up over 2,500 reactions and 2,700 shares1.

The "Today's Teens" version appeared on September 27, 2017, when Facebook meme page Woolies Memes photoshopped the image to remove the building details, keeping only the two doors with new labels and adding the "Today's Teens" caption to the right side. This is the earliest known instance of the format that would go viral1.

Origin & Background

Platform
Facebook (Ideas For Life page, original cartoon), Facebook / Woolies Memes ("Today's Teens" format)
Key People
Unknown, Woolies Memes
Date
2017

The earliest version of the underlying cartoon appeared on April 19, 2012, when the Facebook page Ideas For Life posted a strip by an unknown artist. In that version, two counters are attached to a building. One reads "Those who have time: stand in line here" with a single person waiting, and the other reads "Those who don't have time: stand in line here" with a massive crowd behind it. The image picked up over 670 likes and 400 shares over the following years1.

On May 15, 2016, political blogger Daniel J. Mitchel posted a modified version to his WordPress blog. This version repurposed the crowd-and-building artwork into a two-door format, labeling the building "socialism sign up here." The left door read "work hard keep half" (empty) and the right door read "no work free stuff" (crowded). Writer Michael Yon shared the same image to his Facebook page that day, where it picked up over 2,500 reactions and 2,700 shares1.

The "Today's Teens" version appeared on September 27, 2017, when Facebook meme page Woolies Memes photoshopped the image to remove the building details, keeping only the two doors with new labels and adding the "Today's Teens" caption to the right side. This is the earliest known instance of the format that would go viral1.

How It Spread

The photoshopped "Today's Teens" template took off on Facebook through late 2017 and into 2018, spreading across multiple platforms.

One of the first big hits came on October 8, 2017, when the Facebook page Nondeterministic Memes for NP Complete Teens posted an exploited version. That post pulled in over 9,200 reactions and 1,200 shares over roughly three years1. The page name itself reflects a broader trend of the era: Facebook groups and pages using the "X Memes for Y Teens" naming format, a convention that produced dozens of niche community pages. One of the largest was New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens (NUMTOT), a Facebook group founded in March 2017 that grew to over 229,000 members and earned coverage from CityLab and The Guardian2.

By 2019, the Today's Teens format was still generating engagement. On September 28, 2019, the Facebook page I Hate Mumble Rap posted a version with the crowded door labeled "XXXTENTACION MOONLIGHT INDIAN REMIX" and the empty door labeled "church," earning over 2,800 reactions and 2,900 shares1. Another version from the page Fucking With People on January 29 used "church" and "gay" as the door labels, pulling over 1,500 reactions and 3,200 shares1.

The template remained popular because it required minimal editing skill. Anyone could slap new text on the two doors and post a hot take about generational behavior.

How to Use This Meme

The format is straightforward:

1

Start with the base image: a building with two doors and a crowd entering the right-hand door while the left door sits empty.

2

Label the crowded door with something popular, trendy, or perceived as a bad choice (e.g., a viral song, social media, junk food).

3

Label the empty door with something "better" that teens supposedly ignore (e.g., church, reading, going outside).

4

Add the "Today's Teens" text to the side of the image.

Cultural Impact

The Today's Teens meme arrived during a peak period of "Memes for Teens" culture on Facebook. Throughout 2017 and 2018, hundreds of Facebook groups adopted the "X Memes for Y Teens" naming convention, creating niche communities around everything from urban planning to academic disciplines2. NUMTOT alone inspired members to pursue urban planning careers and even endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in January 20202. While Today's Teens wasn't directly responsible for this naming trend, the two movements fed off each other, and the meme's name fit neatly into the zeitgeist of teen-labeled Facebook humor.

The format also tapped into a long tradition of generational complaint memes. Like "Kids These Days" cartoons dating back decades, Today's Teens gave people an easy visual shorthand to editorialize about youth culture. Its simplicity made it one of the more durable exploitable templates from the 2017-2019 Facebook meme era.

Fun Facts

The original 2012 cartoon that inspired the format was about time management, not generational differences at all1.

The 2016 political version circulated primarily on right-wing Facebook pages before the meme got stripped of its political framing and turned into the "Today's Teens" template1.

One of the earliest viral versions came from a page named after computational complexity theory (Nondeterministic Memes for NP Complete Teens), showing how deeply niche the "Memes for Teens" Facebook ecosystem ran1.

The "Memes for Teens" Facebook group naming convention spawned between 20 and 50 spinoff groups from NUMTOT alone2.

Frequently Asked Questions