Infographics can be useful, fascinating, and, as we've now discovered, downright terrifying. Falling squarely into the latter category is Your Life in Weeks, an interactive infographic that's here to force you to confront your own mortality. Hurray!
Based on your exact age and the life expectancy in your country, the chart will show you how much of your lifespan you've probably already used up. And as you might expect, it's causing an existential crisis or two online. Need cheering up? Many of the best infographics out there aren't quite as morbid as this one.
All you have to do is input your gender and date and country of birth, and Your Life in Weeks will do the rest. Developed by "one man development studio" Coruscant Consulting, the chart is separated into various colour-coded life stages (school, work, retirement, etc.), and will place a star next to your current age. You can also see the lifespans of various famous figures, from Albert Einstein to William Shakespeare.
The chart appears to be based on a concept by illustrator Tim Urban, who posted a static version of the design (below) on his blog Wait But Why, complete with typical life events highlighted.
But believe it or not, it seems the internet isn't taking kindly to seeing how long it has left. "I don’t like this. Not one bit," one Redditor comments, while another adds, "This makes me honestly really uncomfortable". Perhaps this user puts it best: “As a species, we have probably evolved a degree of psychological ability to be somewhat in denial about our mortality and then a chart comes along like this with its unsettling geometric simplicity and triggers an existential crisis. I think I speak for everyone when I say f*** this chart.”
Yep, if the chart proves anything, it's that there's nothing like an infographic to put things in perspective. But don't worry, there are plenty more benign examples out there, like this infographic revealing 50 logo secrets, or this one showing which artists are most popular in your country. If you fancy making a cheerier chart (one which doesn't, you know, predict when you're going to die), check out the best infographic makers on the web.
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