by Maxwell Payne

Created on: February 03, 2010

What is Doppelganger Week on Facebook?

You might have noticed your friend’s Facebook profile pictures suddenly look a bit different. Or do they?

Doppelganger Week is a trend started in January 2010 and has swept the Facebook community.

The idea of Doppelganger Week is to change one’s profile picture to a celebrity that they have been told they most look like. Not the one they “think” they most look like, but the one that they get commonly told they look like. The celebrity could be an artist, musician, actor or actress, socialite, politician, historical figure, author, or anyone in the public eye.

Why Doppelganger?

The word doppelganger is a German word that has a literal translation of “the look alike of a person.” In the case of the Facebook trend, the look alike is a famous person.

How long does it last?

While “week” is in the name of the trend, it basically goes on as long as people keep their profile pictures on Facebook as their celebrity look alike. There is no official start or end date and the trend isn’t an officially sponsored event.

Who created Doppelganger Week?

There is a debate going on as to who “officially” came up with the idea for this Facebook craze. The “official” word according to various media sources and interviews is a photographer by the name of Bob Patel. Whether he “officially” created this trend or simply found the idea is up for debate.

Technically speaking anyone could have come up with this idea and launched it onto Facebook, Mr. Patel may have simply been the first person to heavily promote it.

What if no one told me I look like anyone famous?

The power of the internet makes it possible to find your “celebrity look alike” even if no one ever told you that you look like someone.

There are a ton of websites and programs online accessible by a quick search for “ my celebrity look alike.” The programs work by analyzing your facial features and comparing them to celebrities to give you a good match.

What is the point?

It really is just for fun. Unlike the “color of my bra” status craze that swept Facebook in support of breast cancer, Doppelganger week is just a for fun trend sweeping Facebook.  And both guys and girls can get in on the famous person look alike activities.

A final note on Doppelganger Week:

The irony of Doppelganger week on Facebook is that technically it violates Facebook’s Terms of Service (TOS) for users. Facebook states that users must have permission or own the rights to photos and media that they post on Facebook.

Which means that many, many Facebook profiles have Doppelganger pictures on them that the user likely does not have the right to post.

Facebook hasn’t taken any action of this writing and it may not. After all, it is all in good fun and it isn’t meant to be a permanent photo on one’s Facebook account. Plus is anyone actually going to profit off of this trend? Unlikely.

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