Lack of a Better Word

Doppelgänger Week has it’s origins on Facebook in 2010, when a fellow named Bob Patel, who was told he was strikingly familiar to Tom Selleck, declared Doppelgänger Week to be the first week of February. I think this might be more of a lore than a fact as being the first, as Mashable reported in 2009 that Coke Zero had a Facebook app that would search for our double and used the word Doppelgänger but the match was based on those who uploaded their pictures, not celebrities.

Doppelgänger Week is an internet meme whereby users of social media (particularly Facebook) change their profile pictures to that of celebrities with whom they share appearance traits. One is also asked to forward the trend making the event more viral.

“It’s Doppelgänger week on Facebook; change your profile picture to someone famous (actor, musician, athlete, etc.) you have been told you look like. After you update your profile with your twin or switched at birth photo then cut/paste this to your status.” ^{– Post Message}

So does this week still have legs two years on? We will have to wait and see. With the ramping up of the thumping of copyright issues abounding, I am thinking it is probably not as big as the first year as posting a pic that you do not own violates Facebooks rules and could get your account hogtied.

Wikipedia defines Internet meme ( /ˈmiːm/; meem) as a term “used to describe a concept that spreads via the Internet. The term is a reference to the concept of memes, although the latter concept refers to a much broader category of cultural information. The earliest known usage of meme is in the book The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins published in 1976.”