Don’t Be Like Bill: Why This Online Meme Is Getting On Everyone’s Nerves
This is Bill. He’s the subject of an internet meme, which attempts to police people’s online behaviour.
That might be: don’t tweet so much about your girlfriend, don’t Facebook about the weather, don’t change your profile picture too regularly.
On the one hand, the character is widely popular: its Facebook page has almost 1.6m likes, with each of the posts getting thousands of shares.
A typical Be like Bill post (Facebook)
But, on the side, he’s hated. Like, really hated.
So many people have taken exception to the passive-aggressive nature of the posts, in fact, something of a meme has sprung up in reaction.
A response to Bill (Karl Sharro/Twitter)
Eugeniu Croitoru, who set up a Facebook page for Bill told the BBC: “The idea is very simple. ‘Bill’ can be anyone who is smart and has common sense and doesn’t do annoying things.
“You’ll also notice Bill can be someone who makes fun of himself and jokes about others too occasionally."
But he’s become a figure of hate (Bill not Eugeniu) with a ‘Don’t be like Bill and Emily’ Facebook page appearing.
The backlash continued to the point that even the ‘official’ Be like Bill posted a picture of a Kill Bill-themed picture featuring a blood-splattered Bill and asked who created it.
Maybe, don’t be like Bill after all.
