Why does the internet tell us to look among the keys of the keyboard?

These days, memes and various trends spread on social networks at the speed of light: X, Reddit, Threads, and TikTok - unlike Instagram and Facebook - serve as containers and see users interact more through so-called threads. Threads, discussion topics under which users exchange opinions by adding personal comments, testify that social media is moving towards a different, or at least more varied, form of communication that aims to be much more intimate. The strength of threads, in short, is to stimulate user engagement by encouraging active participation and the creation of communities through the available platform content. In recent days, there's a particular trend - popularized mainly on Elon Musk's social platform - that's thrilling all users: it's called Look between the letters on your keyboard, it's much more childish and inconsistent than it may seem, and most likely everyone will forget about it in no time.

How to use the meme?

The meme, which prompts users to look between certain letters on the keyboard, appears to have originated from a post shared on 4chan in May 2021 - at least according to what's read on the site Know Your Meme. That old post featured a photo of Yui Hirasawa, the protagonist of the anime K-On!, accompanied by the caption "look between the letters T and O on the keyboard," where you could see the character's name. It's not clear how that post led to the trend boom years later - but it's not the first time that memes become viral long after their origin. The use of Look between the letters on your keyboard has spread like wildfire and has been used by official accounts like that of Manchester City, in a not very imaginative way and quite similar to the original version from 2021; the Guinness World Records tweet was then added to the English team's account, using the irony that distinguishes the page's tone of voice.

Just "engagement bait"?

User @KhanStopMe suggested that Look between the letters on your keyboard is a trend simply useful to increase engagement, claiming that when you click the reply button to bring up the keyboard, X's algorithm reads an interaction with the original post, even though no response is actually posted. It's unclear if X's algorithm actually works this way: the social network has never provided a definitive explanation for this doubt. Moreover, the theory put forth by @KhanStopMe does not seem very convincing as most Look between the letters on your keyboard memes suggest reading "JK" between the letters H and L, an abbreviation for Just Kidding - effectively ending the user's curiosity.