Year Personification Memes

Year personification has got to be one of the stupidest trends in memes lately. It can be explained with "agenticity" - the propensity of humans to look for actors that are responsible for things happening around them - the actor here is the year, itself. How much more retarded can one get? Perceiving an arbitrary range of time as an agent.

In this meme, the point is that everyone thought 2016 was "the worst year ever". Very low-effort macro, as anyone could replace any period with an ever worse period from the past. Bonus shit points for using "literally everyone" in the caption - a supposedly funny exaggeration, reminding me of the "No one. Literally no one" memeplague. Of course, many people have it better in 2020, than they did in 2016. I sure do. I'm quite happy with where I'm at right now, and world news and panic can't change my personal inner peace. Try practicing stoicism, you crybabies.

Addressing a year as if it's a person? I know it's supposed to be funny exactly because of this exaggeration, but I can't help but see it as the voice of privileged spoiled young adults. The year "is constantly trying to kill them", they're thinking, while sitting comfortably in their cozy homes, enjoying a warm drink, and listening to their favorite music. And because they're most likely atheists, their primitive brain is still in need of a prayer. So they substitute God with the current year and pray for their anxiety to go away.