It was surely a simpler time before the advent of the cell phone: how many times have we heard that complaint that young people these days just don’t get off their mobiles? But it is also true that most of us tend to take the cell phone’s many uses for granted. The “not a cell phone in sight” copypasta meme – which has been all the rage on Twitter this year – cheekily pokes fun at such “false and condescending” nostalgia for the good old days.

Twitter users have paired the meme with images of dark times throughout history. Here are some of my favourites. This one shows a group of dinosaurs “living in the moment” – on their way to extinction, perhaps – instead of sitting around, scrolling through social media applications.

In these, shoes and tables fly as people live in simpler times:

Some applied the meme to their favourite movies and television shows: