About
“There are Two Kinds of People” is an expression used online to preface a statement that generalizes and juxtaposes people into two polar opposite groups based on their personal behaviors or preferences. On Tumblr, the phrase is typically inserted as a comment on an image post or ongoing conversation to highlight the discussion topic as the definitive indicator of which of the two groups each reader belongs to.
Origin
The earliest known usage of the expression on record can be found in a quote attributed to the 19th-century American novelist and writer Mark Twain:[3]
The first widespread humorous derivation of the expression and arguably the origin of the meme as it exists today was the popular mathematics joke “there are only 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary, and those who don’t.”
Spread
On April 27th, 2013, BuzzFeed ran a compilation of examples, most of them taken from Tumblr conversations, in an article titled “There Are Two Types Of People In This World”.[1] On September 17th, 2014, boredpanda published an article titled “There Are Two Kinds Of People: Do You Recognize Yourself?”, consisting of a series of minimalist infographics outlining common dichotomies in everyday life.[2]
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]Buzzfeed – There Are Two Types Of People In This World
[2]Boredpanda – There Are Two Kinds Of People: Do You Recognize Yourself?
[3]BrainyQuote – Mark Twain