Best Tell me without telling me

Q: What does the phrase tell me without telling me mean?

Its a social game in which social media users ask others to share personal opinions and beliefs without using a direct mention of the subject.

About

Tell Me Without Telling Me, also known as #TheTellMeChallenge, is a social game in which social media users ask others to share personal opinions and beliefs without using direct mentions of the subject.

Table of Contents Show

Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
This is how the 'tell me without telling me' challenge started
What does the phrase tell me without telling me mean?
What is the tell me without telling me challenge?

Origin

On May 28th, 2019, Twitter [1] user @myjinseuphoria tweeted, "If you see this, you are obligated to tell me your bias without telling me their names." The tweet received more than 350 likes in less than two years (shown below).

Spread

The meme didn't begin to spread until the following year. On November 18th, 2020, Twitter[2] user @mahabagin tweeted, "Tell me your University Series best boy without telling me their names." The tweet received more than 475 likes 135 retweets in less than one month (shown below, left).

The following month, the meme went viral on Twitter. On December 5th, Twitter[3] user @fluffyfitz tweeted, "tell me you're lgbt without telling me you're lgbt." The tweet received more than 53,000 likes and 29,000 retweets in less than two weeks (shown below, right).

Shortly after the tweet spread, brand-associated Twitter accounts began joining the game. For example, the following day, the beer company Michelob shared a variation, asking users to respond (shown below).[4]

On TikTok, the game also went viral. As of December 16th, 2020 the hashtags #tellmechallenge[5] and #tellmewithouttellingme[6] has more than 6.9 million views and 3.8 million views (examples below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References

social media apps

Primakov/Shutterstock

Thanks to social media, many memes and challenges go viral in the blink of an eye. All it takes is a few social media influencers to hashtag or share videos of themselves doing a specific challenge, and it spreads like wildfire across the web. We usually see it with viral dances and even challenges for charity, like the ALS ice bucket challenge (via Voa News).

Recently, one that has been going viral on social media is the "tell me without telling me" challenge. The challenge appears in TikTok videos and Instagram reels, where people admit things about themselves and their beliefs, without outright saying what they're talking about. It's a way to divulge things without being too specific or too literal.

While the viral video challenge is ridiculously popular and popping up on every platform, where did it start and how did it end up becoming something that everyone is trying on their profile?

This is how the 'tell me without telling me' challenge started

TikTok challenges

Nattakorn_Maneerat/Shutterstock

While the "tell me without telling me" challenge has gained mass popularity recently, the meme stems all the way back from 2019 on a completely different social media app (via Know Your Meme). In 2019, Twitter user @myjinseuphoria tweeted a very specific question prompt saying, "If you see this, you are obligated to tell me your bias without telling me their names." However, in 2020, the meme began taking off further on Twitter when people started creating Twitter threads. Companies even began to use the challenge for publicity.

With TikTok becoming the "go to" app of Gen-Z, it's allowed the challenge to spread even further. As of December 2020, the tell me challenge hashtags have had more than 6 million views, with thousands upon thousands of people using different prompts to spread their beliefs and information.

Some popular versions of the trends are, "Tell me you're a mom without telling me you're a mom," or "Tell me you're LGBT without telling me you're LGBT." With Instagram reels and remixing, people have begun to use the challenge in video mash ups, too.