About
Soul Searching Sophomore is an advice animal image macro series featuring a photograph of a lonely-looking man in front of a group of college students. The captions typically include statements related to the philosophical notion of identity.
Origin
A stock photo featuring several students talking in the background with a lone student wearing a melancholy expression in the foreground (shown below, left) was uploaded to the stock photography website Big Stock Photo[2] on September 30th, 2011. Redditor jtkamp19 submitted a post titled “Soul Searching Sophomore” to the /r/AdviceAnimals[1] subreddit on June 11th, 2012, which featured the same stock photo accompanied by the caption “Would introduce myself / If I knew who I was” (shown below, right). Within the next five months, the post received over 12,500 up votes and 360 comments.
Spread
On June 12th, 2012, the “Soul Searching Sophomore” single topic blog was launched on Tumblr,[5] which reblogged Redditor jtkamp19’s image macro. The same day, the @SoulSearchSoph Twitter account was created, featuring captions from the image macro series.
Would introduce myself, if I knew who I was.
— Soul Searching Soph (@SoulSearchSoph) June 12, 2012
Also on June 12th, 9gag[4] user animuxurfy submitted an image macro with the caption “‘Sith with someone you don’t know’ / So I sat alone” (shown below, left) to the Internet humor site. Within five months, the post received over 22,800 up votes and 4,400 Facebook shares. On November 10th, Redditor heitsamp submitted a post titled “On my way to a first date” to the /r/AdviceAnimals[3] subrredit, featuring an image macro with the caption “‘Just be yourself’ / I would if I knew who I was” (shown below, right). Within 48 hours, the post received over 12,700 up votes and 400 comments.
Notable Examples
Additional examples can be found on Tumblr[6] under the tag “#soul searching sophomore.” As of November 12th, 2012, the “Soul Searching Sophomore” Quickmeme[7] page has accumulated over 200 submissions.
Search Interest
Not available.
External References
[1]Reddit – Soul Searching Sophomore
[2]Big Stock Photo – Lonely student posing while his classmates are talking outside a building
[3]Reddit – On my way to a first date
[4]9gag – Soul Searching Sophomore
[5]Tumblr – Soul Searching Sophomore
[6]Tumblr – #soul searching sophomore
[7]Quickmeme – Soul Searching Sophomore