According to the Gregorian calendar, we’re all living in the year 2017. But some people seem to have access to better technology than the rest of us: their futuristic gadgets indicate that they are ahead of their time, already living in 3017.
Calling things “3017” seems to have originated with Black Twitter, as a way of describing music that sounds so fresh it must be from the future. Soundcloud rapper Wintertime, for example, seems to be a 3017 icon:
https://twitter.com/Wintertime/status/815479312753291268
https://twitter.com/t_Allen757/status/820006522486980610
https://twitter.com/llnskii/status/820060940410335233
¥ My main goal of 2017 is to travel to 3017 to meet @Wintertime. ¥
— DANNY STRANGE 🚀 (@FlexDantallo) January 14, 2017
wintertime is the only individual in 3017
— random user (@b4dl34guep1ay3r) May 27, 2017
Futuristic style queen Janelle Monae is also very 3017:
Janelle Monae out here in the year 3017 and looking flawless in the process. 👑💛 pic.twitter.com/8XSho6HHwe
— Cocoa Butter (@cocoabutterbf) June 6, 2017
But “living in 3017” isn’t just about music anymore: it’s evolved into a sarcastic phrase that mocks people who build weird, impractical, low-budget life hacks—what some might call “kludges”—and it’s branched out from Black Twitter to conquer the entire social media landscape.
Let’s take a trip into the world of 3017, starting with the tweet that seems to have launched the meme into the mainstream:
https://twitter.com/MyFavsTrash/status/861986975997415424
Damn, Daniel. That’s how people eat cereal in the future. What else are people eating in the far future?
https://twitter.com/nothinbutlag/status/864594620809969664
Them other ice cream shops livin’ in 2017 while we’re out here livin’ in 3017. pic.twitter.com/Bbw933iGNN
— Licks Unlimited (@LicksUnlimited) June 14, 2017
.@intaglipuntoit is out here living in 3017. See his beautiful carving designs on Instagram: https://t.co/aFoKIhcQV8 #Avocado #Art pic.twitter.com/ddIlagwT8A
— Purple Carrot (@PurpleCarrotXO) June 19, 2017
Okay, okay. That’s cool and all, but what are people wearing?
https://twitter.com/SilversTweet/status/874984218576793601
🏀⛪️🖤 Michèle Jordan 🖤⛪️ 🏀 pic.twitter.com/KKyHFexa3p
— Tim Birkin (@bloody_osiris) June 10, 2017
https://twitter.com/RealRomCade/status/874296761098960896
Ugh, I can’t wait to get to 3017. Regular shoelaces are so over. Let’s see what other amazing advances humanity will achieve in the next 1,000 years:
https://twitter.com/OvaisBowss/status/873387052976529410
https://twitter.com/marissuh_x/status/873972069314187264
We’re in 2017 and this boy in 3017 pic.twitter.com/ZdHAjCelXC
— Vinny Cantu (@_vincent_cantu_) May 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/FunnyBIacks/status/877023571289288704
Hyderix is in 3017 while we’re stuck in 2017 pic.twitter.com/afO5RHRsOh
— Blue (@Bluex) June 18, 2017
https://twitter.com/KarolineBlek/status/876196475788697601
https://twitter.com/SpeakComedy/status/875897639149219841
https://twitter.com/connzillaa/status/874772720835317760
https://twitter.com/itsabdus_/status/877164762215403520
The future of the world looks bright. And so does the future of this meme. There’s no limit to the faux-futuristic junk people can come up with, and they have approximately 1,000 years to keep doing it. By the time this finally gets old, we’ll be seeing previews of the year 4017.
