# Todays Teens 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. ## Origin 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 years[1]. 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 shares[1]. 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 viral[1]. - **Platform:** Facebook (Ideas For Life page, original cartoon), Facebook / Woolies Memes ("Today's Teens" format) - **Creator:** Unknown (original cartoon artist), Woolies Memes (Facebook page that created the "Today's Teens" version) - **Date:** 2017 ## 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 prioritize[1]. 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. ## 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 years[1]. 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 Guardian[2]. 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 shares[1]. 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 shares[1]. 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 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 disciplines[2]. NUMTOT alone inspired members to pursue urban planning careers and even endorsed Bernie Sanders for president in January 2020[2]. 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 all[1]. - 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" template[1]. - 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 ran[1]. - The "Memes for Teens" Facebook group naming convention spawned between 20 and 50 spinoff groups from NUMTOT alone[2]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Today's Teens? Today's Teens is an exploitable image macro showing two doors on a building, one packed with people and one empty. Users label the doors to joke about what teens supposedly choose over "better" alternatives[1]. ### Where did Today's Teens come from? The format originated from a 2012 Facebook cartoon about time management. It was adapted into a two-door political meme in 2016, then Facebook page Woolies Memes created the "Today's Teens" version on September 27, 2017[1]. ### What does Today's Teens mean? The meme comments on perceived generational priorities by showing teens (represented by the crowd) choosing a popular or frivolous option while ignoring a "better" alternative (the empty door)[1]. ### How do you use Today's Teens? Take the base image and replace the door labels. The crowded door gets something popular or perceived as negative, and the empty door gets something supposedly undervalued. Add "Today's Teens" as the caption[1]. ### Is Today's Teens still popular? The format saw peak usage between 2017 and 2019 on Facebook. While it still appears occasionally, its heaviest circulation was during the late 2010s Facebook meme era[1]. ### Who created the original cartoon? The original 2012 cartoon about time management was posted by the Facebook page Ideas For Life, but the artist behind it is unknown[1]. ### What was the first viral "Today's Teens" post? One of the earliest successful versions was posted on October 8, 2017, by the Facebook page Nondeterministic Memes for NP Complete Teens, which earned over 9,200 reactions[1]. ### What are "Memes for Teens" Facebook groups? During 2017-2018, hundreds of Facebook groups adopted the "X Memes for Y Teens" naming format. One of the largest, New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens, grew to over 229,000 members[2]. ### Was the meme originally political? The 2016 two-door version by Daniel J. Mitchel used a pro-capitalism framing. The "Today's Teens" version that went viral stripped out the political messaging and made it a general-purpose generational commentary template[1]. ## References 1. [New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens]() 2. [Today's Teens - Know Your Meme]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/todays-teens Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library