A meme is spreading that claims everyone “is 2018 today” and urges readers to add up their age and year of birth which – according to the meme – should add up to 2018.
The meme goes on to explain that the phenomenon cannot be explained, not even by “foreign experts”.
An example of the meme can be seen below –
We are all 2018 today!
Today the whole world is the same age!
Today is a very special day. It happens only once every 1,000 years.
Your age + your year of birth, every person is = 2018.
It’s so strange that even Chinese and foreign experts cant explain it! You figure it out and see if its 2018. It’s a thousand-year wait! Circle of friends, lets everybody calculate it! #emahshae
The meme is essentially a joke, and judging by the number of messages we’ve received about it, clearly a joke that has flown over the heads of many.
Yes, of course if you add your year of birth and your age, you get the current year (or the year before, if you haven’t had your birthday for that year yet.) This isn’t a rare occurrence. This doesn’t happen only once every 1,000 years. There is nothing special about 2018. This is true regardless of the year.
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Bluntly put, that’s basically how you calculate your age. In 2019, if you add your year of birth to your current age, you’ll get… 2019! (again, assuming you have had your birthday for that year.) Alternatively, you can work out your age by subtracting the year of your birth from the current year.
The below formula – assuming you’ve already had your birthday in a given year, is always true, no matter what year it is.
X + Y = Z
(X = Your Age, Y = Your Birth Year, Z = Current Year)
As such, the claims that no one can explain it (even “foreign experts”?!) and that it only happens once every 1,000 years is simply nonsensical.
So if you fell for it, well… we all have off days. Forget about it, and move on.