In case you couldn’t tell, this week is Doppelgänger Week on Facebook.
What does this mean? Practically, it means your newsfeeds will suddenly become overrun with a steady stream of highly attractive people who you’ll recognize not as your friends, but as actors, athletes, and an assortment of other famous people. Your friends will choose the celebrity they most look like (or, more likely, the celebrity they kinda-sorta look like, because hey look, we both have the same eye color!) and use them as their profile picture for a week.
Doppelgänger Week started in 2010 and takes place every year– well, the past three years– in the first week of February. The origins of Doppelgänger Week are unclear– The Huffington Post held an “interview” with a “Bob Patel,” the fictitious man who created the idea, an article which has been taken seriously by a few too many people and publications (Christian Science Monitor, we’re looking at you)– but the Facebook page Doppelganger Week joined Facebook on January 31, 2010.
This year, Doppelgänger Week seems to be gaining even more steam, with everyone from Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (he posted a picture of the actor who imitates him, Mariano Idelman) to Avigdor Lieberman (he chose Sean Connery for his) joining in on their own Facebook pages. I know my Facebook newsfeed has gotten a lot prettier these past few days, some friends jumping in fully, others reluctantly asking, “Okay, I guess I’ll give in– who do I look like?”
Facebook’s Doppelganger page is full of users posting their pictures and asking that same question. Other users find their matches through such sites as MyHeritage.com, DoppelgangerWeek.com, and FaceDouble.com. Of course, these sites are largely ridiculous, with one picture of a (Caucasian) (female) friend pulling up results of Nat King Cole, and another (Caucasian) (female) friend getting a 64% match with Wen Jiabao. So I wouldn’t trust the results, but they can be fun tools to play with, especially if you download the app and happen to be extremely bored.
Enjoy your pretty newsfeed. The week ends soon and won’t be back for another year.
