The internet in 2017

2017 was the year of Dancing Pallbearers, Despacito, Fyre Festival and r/place. Part of the platform era.

• Despacito Sound · 2017
• View original Fyre Festival Moment · 2017
• View original r/place Trend · 2017
• View original Salt Bae Video · 2017
• Read Covfefe Post · 2017
• Lofi Girl Trend · 2017
• View original Stonks Meme · 2017

1. January

   Distracted boyfriend A Turkish progressive rock group on Facebook posts it with the man labelled Phil Collins. An English-language prog page reposts it the next day. Wikipedia — Distracted boyfriend

2. 7 January

   Salt Bae The video of Gökçe carving and salting a steak is posted. It is viewed more than sixteen million times on Instagram. Wikipedia — Salt Bae

3. 12 January

   Despacito The video is uploaded to Luis Fonsi’s channel. The single is released the next day. Wikipedia — Despacito

4. 31 January

   Trash Doves Facebook, having licensed the drawings, adds them to Messenger with an animated head-banging bird. Wikipedia — Trash Doves

5. 2 February

   Distracted boyfriend The picture reaches Twitter. Wikipedia — Distracted boyfriend

6. 7 February

   Trash Doves A Thai Facebook page posts a video pairing the bird with a dancing cat. It is watched 3.5 million times in days. Wikipedia — Trash Doves

7. 25 February

   Lofi Girl It begins streaming lo-fi music, using a clip of a girl studying from a Studio Ghibli film. Wikipedia — Lofi Girl

8. 1 April

   r/place The first canvas opens: a thousand squares by a thousand, sixteen colours. Over three days more than a million users place about sixteen million squares. Wikipedia — r/place

9. 28 April

   Fyre Festival Attendees arrive to tents, wet mattresses and cheese sandwiches in foam boxes. The festival is postponed in the early hours and then cancelled. Wikipedia — Fyre Festival

10. 31 May

    Covfefe The tweet is posted at six minutes past midnight, Washington time. It is deleted about six hours later, and followed by: “Who can figure out the true meaning of ‘covfefe’ ??? Enjoy!” Wikipedia — Covfefe

11. 5 June

    Stonks The Stonks image is posted. Wikipedia — Meme Man

12. 10 July

    See You Again overtook Gangnam Style, ending a reign of nearly five years — and then held the title for about 25 days, the shortest of the modern era. Variety

13. 25 July

    Dancing Pallbearers BBC News runs a feature on the group. Wikipedia — Dancing Pallbearers

14. 25 July

    Despacito Despacito took the most-liked record from See You Again and held it for seven and a half years, until MrBeast's baguette Short passed it. Wikipedia — List of most-liked YouTube videos

15. 4 August

    Despacito It becomes the most-viewed video on YouTube and, the same day, the first to three billion views. Wikipedia — Despacito

16. 19 August

    Distracted boyfriend A tweet labels the girlfriend capitalism and the passing woman socialism. This is the post the format spreads from. Wikipedia — Distracted boyfriend

17. 15 October

    Hashtag activism Alyssa Milano makes #MeToo widely known. Wikipedia — Hashtag activism

18. 16 November

    dril A post on Tumblr names him. Wikipedia — Dril

1. January

   Road Work Ahead Vine closes, and Gooden moves to YouTube. Wikipedia — Drew Gooden (comedian)

2. 23 March

   Potter Puppet Pals A remake is posted for the tenth anniversary. Wikipedia — Potter Puppet Pals

3. 30 March

   Club Penguin The servers are switched off. Wikipedia — Club Penguin

4. April

   Cicada 3301 The last message carrying the group’s verified signature is published. Wikipedia — Cicada 3301

5. 1 April

   Doge China’s CCTV airs a report that Kabosu has died. It is an April Fools’ hoax. Wikipedia — Doge (meme)

6. 1 April

   Numa Numa Brolsma uploads the original to his own YouTube channel, more than twelve years after he made it. Wikipedia — Numa Numa (video)

7. 3 April

   Boaty McBoatface The submarine Boaty McBoatface begins its first mission, in the Orkney Passage. Wikipedia — Boaty McBoatface

8. 17 April

   Despacito A remix with Justin Bieber is released. Wikipedia — Despacito

9. 27 May

   Despacito It reaches number one in the United States, where it stays for sixteen weeks, equalling the record. Wikipedia — Despacito

10. 12 June

    Covfefe A bill called the COVFEFE Act is introduced in Congress, to require that presidential social-media posts be archived. It goes no further. Wikipedia — Covfefe

11. 15 June

    Delicious Its last buyer, a rival bookmarking service, makes it read-only. Wikipedia — Delicious (website)

12. July

    Giphy It reports 200 million users a day. Wikipedia — Giphy

13. 10 July

    Gangnam Style It loses the most-viewed record to See You Again by Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth. Wikipedia — Gangnam Style

14. 19 July

    Boaty McBoatface A Swedish train is reported to have been named Trainy McTrainface by public vote. Wikipedia — Boaty McBoatface

15. 28 July

    Chocolate Rain Phish open a concert at Madison Square Garden with it. Wikipedia — Chocolate Rain

16. August

    Godwin's law Godwin says that comparing the marchers at Charlottesville to Nazis is fair. Wikipedia — Godwin’s law

17. September

    Lofi Girl After YouTube removes the stream over the film clip, a commissioned animation replaces it. Wikipedia — Lofi Girl

18. December

    Leeroy Jenkins Schulz and Vinson release an earlier take of the video, a dry run. Vinson says they had thought it was obviously satire. Wikipedia — Leeroy Jenkins

19. December

    Milkshake Duck Oxford Dictionaries names it a runner-up for word of the year. Wikipedia — Milkshake Duck

• It's Everyday Bro
• Man's Not Hot
• The La La Land Oscars mix-up The story
• Trash Doves Look

On this page: 12 named things from 2017, 3 videos, 2 memes, 1 sound or saying and 3 trends among them.