Distracted Boyfriend

Distracted Boyfriend is based on a 2015 stock photo shot in Girona, Spain, by photographer Antonio Guillem. Social media users began turning it into a meme in early 2017, and it exploded later that year because the setup is instantly readable: one subject abandons what he should value for a tempting distraction. That made it a durable format for jokes about shifting priorities, bad decisions, disloyalty, and attention moving from one thing to another.