A TikTok video about friends splitting up so everyone gets their own story, with the caption ‘When the friend group is separated so everyone is experiencing their own arc,’ has been copied and shared millions of times across the web since 2024.
The trend, tracked by a series of entries on Catchphrases, first appeared in December 2024 and enjoyed a major resurgence in 2026. The memes use clips of people doing things independently, each version of the caption being a parody of the trope in movies and TV shows, such as the “solo sequence” where a character breaks away from the group to have their own story.
The video that started it
On December 18th, 2024, TikToker @solosin posted a comedy video captioned, “POV: everyone in the friend group is now doing their own thing (timeskip arc).” The video has garnered over 12 million views in two years.
In the video, the TikToker plays several different characters, each meant to be part of the friend group that separated. This is one of the earliest notable versions of the meme, and the caption itself — “POV: everyone in the friend group is now doing their own thing (timeskip arc)” — became a template for other creators to follow.
The summer of the trend
The meme and trend became increasingly popularized between 2024 and 2026, particularly seeing a major resurgence in 2026. The format is simple: the friend group splits up, and each person goes off to do something different, often with a caption that reads, “When the friend group is separated so everyone is experiencing their own arc.”
The trend gained momentum as more creators picked it up and adapted it to their own content. Each new version added its own spin, but the core formula remained the same: friends going their separate ways, each doing something different, with a caption that reframes the moment as a personal arc.
Who posted what when
The series tracks several notable entries across TikTok and Instagram Reels, each with its own reach.
- On April 10th, 2026, TikToker @juiceditup posted a version of the meme that gained over 2 million views in five months.
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The caption included a hashtag for “engineering,” a detail noted in the entry.
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On June 5th, YouTuber Linquito posted a video following the meme trend, garnering over 1.1 million views in three months.
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On September 19th, 2026, TikToker @lazycps posted a video using clips from the Minions movies under a version of the caption, garnering over 4.5 million views.
The caption’s reach
The phrase “When the friend group is separated so everyone is experiencing their own arc” has become a catchphrase in its own right. It is used as a caption across skits and video edits, where the meme first started going viral as early as December 2024.
The trend relies on the audience’s familiarity with the “solo sequence” trope from TV and movies, where a character breaks away from the group to have their own story. The meme parodies that structure by showing friends doing their own thing, each one’s story running parallel to the others.
How a single caption spread
The trend exemplifies how a single caption can become a shared language online through meme repurposing. It started as a joke, and it spread quickly across platforms as creators adapted it to their own videos and skits.
It also shows how quickly a trend can spread across platforms. The @solosin video started it, and then creators across TikTok and YouTube picked it up, each adding their own spin. The numbers below document that reach.
The numbers tell the story
The series tracks the views each video has generated over time. The @solosin video has over 12 million views in two years, the @juiceditup video has over 2 million views in five months, the Linquito video has over 1.1 million views in three months, and the @lazycps video has over 4.5 million views.
“Dang 🥲”
That is a response posted as part of the entry’s list of notable TikTokers.
The trend has been documented through September 2026, with creators continuing to adapt the caption to their own videos and skits.
Source material: “The Separation Of The Friend Group Visualized In This Series Of Memes On TikTok, Reels,” Know Your Meme.
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