A new trend has been spreading across social media, telling people to “look between X and Y on your keyboard.” Even though it’s vague, this trend has caught people’s attention and is sparking curiosity and frustration.
When you check your keyboard, there’s nothing special between the letters X and Y except the letter F. So, what’s the point of this trend, and why do people keep sharing it?
The ‘look between x and y on your keyboard’ meme explained
This whole trend began with a meme posted in May 2021 on 4Chan, a basic site where users can anonymously share images and comments. The meme featured a character from the anime series K-On with a caption that said, “look between t and o on your’e key bored” (with a typo in the word “your’e”).
When you look at the keyboard, the letters between ‘t’ and ‘o’ are ‘y,’ ‘u,’ and ‘i,’ which spell out “Yui.” It’s a character from the K-On series about girls who start a band through their high school’s music club.
A Twitter user, @KeionDaisuki_01, reposted the meme, explaining how this trend originated.
This new social media trend that’s been confusing is known as a “snowclone.” It is a template where people can swap in different words or phrases to create new versions of the same idea. Here’s what it’s all about.
When people follow these prompts, they often find nothing but a jumble of meaningless letters. It leads to more confusion and even some anger. The trend has become a way to joke around, troll, or trick people into looking for hidden messages that don’t make any sense.
The trend has gotten so popular that even well-known celebrities, news outlets, major X accounts, and big media companies are taking part in it.
Applicant: "I want to break the record for the longest time without sleep!!"
Us: Look between T and U on your keyboard
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) April 23, 2024
Even the Guinness World Records X account shared their own take on the trend.
Critics slam the trend for its ‘pointlessness’ and lack of creativity
Reddit users have gotten in on this trend too. In one post, there’s a picture of actor JK Simmons with a caption, “look between h and l on your keyboard.” If you follow the prompt, you find the letters ‘j’ and ‘k’. And when put together can mean “just kidding.”
But unlike other social media trends, this one hasn’t been received well. Many people online are calling it silly and saying it’s just plain dumb. It’s been met with a lot of criticism, with most users finding it pointless and unintelligent.
“I feel like I need to log out of Twitter until this keyboard trend dies,” one person said.
Another frustrated user, commenting under one such tweet, said, “Where is World Health Organization when you need them? This is becoming a global pandemic!”
