How the ‘By 35’ meme mutated from sharp commentary on the retirement crisis to literally whatever

We may have started the fire, but the internet has made it into a conflagration of its very own.

MarketWatch published a tweet on May 12 citing advice from Fidelity Investments that, by age 35, people should aim to have twice their salary in savings. The tweet elicited a storm of reactions, many angry and defensive, many joking. All of them pointed out that in today’s economic climate, young adults are having trouble saving any money at all, let alone twice one’s salary.

The responses have since propagated into a full-blown Twitter meme. In the space of 12 days we’ve gone from this:

To this:

Memes are a dime a dozen these days — every day a new one rises up from the ashes of its predecessors. Most count their life cycles in days, maybe weeks, but rarely months or years. It won’t be long before this one, too, runs out of steam. But according to data from Twitter  , “By 35” is still very much alive and kicking.

Since our first tweet, more than 300,000 tweets — and counting! — have been written with the words “by 35, you should...” (or “by age 35, you should...”), according to Twitter, with today seeing the highest volume of tweets per hour (approaching 5,000) that the meme has logged thus far.

As with many memes before it, the longer this one goes on, the more and more distant most of the tweets are getting from the original meaning.

The first mutation came about as people suggested other equally “attainable” goals that retirement experts no doubt have up their sleeves.

From there came perhaps the most popular variant of the meme: a template for commenting on the harsh and laughable truths of so-called adulthood.

Naturally, the meme went political at times.

This strain about the Oxford comma has become so popular/unpopular, it has set off a Twitter storm of its own.

Eventually, brands hopped on the bandwagon, wiping clean all traces of the meme’s darker origins.

Well, this company kinda kept it real?

And a personal favorite:

Ironically, given where this all started, many are now taking it on the level and talking out their #LifeGoals. It began with sharp commentary on the financial struggles that millions of Americans face today — and the retirement crisis we appear to be barreling toward. It has morphed into a template for commenting on… anything and everything, from the inevitability of death to cows.

Such is the internet.