If you've been pretty much anywhere on the internet in the last couple of weeks, you'll have no doubt come across #10YearChallenge on social media.
If not, the premise is simple - post a 2009 photo of yourself next to a recent one, to show how much you've changed.
Millions have taken part, but some have criticised it for being - among other things - narcissistic, ageist and sometimes a bit sexist.
But now people are using the hashtag to reflect on bigger changes. Such as...
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The only #10YearChallenge we should care about ??? #M1Ö pic.twitter.com/S8hU7gNgZJ— Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) January 17, 2019
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In this tweet, footballer Mesut Ozil compares what appears to be a large iceberg on the left, and a melted iceberg on the right.
Although the meme isn't entirely accurate - the photo on the left, of the in Antarctica, was taken in November 2016 rather than in 2008 - there's no denying that shrinking ice sheets continue to be a major issue.
According to , Antarctica is losing about 127 gigatonnes of ice mass every year, while Greenland loses 286 gigatonnes annually.
This, they say, is largely down to rising global temperatures being absorbed by oceans. The planet's average surface temperature has risen by about 0.9C since the late 19th century - and about a third of that has happened in the last decade.
Environmental activist groups are also using the hashtag to highlight this issue.
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Arctic 100 years ago vs Today. This is the truth about the #10YearChallenge. RT if you agree. #climatechange (Images courtesy of Christian Åslund and The Norwegian Polar Institute) pic.twitter.com/TrnpbgPUOt— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) January 17, 2019
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This post from Greenpeace bends the challenge a bit, by comparing archival photos from 1928 with images taken by Swedish photographer Christian Aslund in 2002.
And Martin Kobler, the German Ambassador to Pakistan, tweeted out an article about climate change in the Pakistani region of Balochistan.
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Climate change is alarming! Pakistan is the 8th most affected country in world. water shortage in #Balochistan is endangering humans & animals. 10 years from now, it can be either better or worse.. depending on our actions of today. @zartajgulwazir#10yearchallenge #GREENit pic.twitter.com/BKuOcAkTkc— Martin Kobler (@KoblerinPAK) January 16, 2019
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According to the latest , Pakistan has been the eighth most-affected by climate change over the last two decades.
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#2008vs2018 and it’s almost unchanged! ? #HowHardDidAgingHitYou #10YearChallengeReportIt can take hundreds of years for a...Posted by WWF-Philippines on Wednesday, 16 January 2019
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The year 2018 was when the world really woke up to the reality of plastic pollution as well as climate change.
Scientists calculate that about end up in the oceans every year - and that some of that can take hundreds of years to biodegrade.
So some campaigners are turning the #10YearChallenge on its head to show that, while we might have changed a lot in the last decade, the plastic we throw away remains almost exactly the same.
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Syria’s #10YearChallenge ? pic.twitter.com/8rK74DERaP— Muniba Mazari (@muniba_mazari) January 16, 2019
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On 17 December, 2010, a Tunisian street vendor called Mohamed Bouazizi refused to pay a bribe to local officials, so had his fruit and vegetable cart confiscated as a result. Faced with an unforgiving bureaucratic process, .
This act, less than 10 years ago, was the catalyst for what was later known as the Arab Spring - a wave of protests across the Middle East and North Africa that, in some cases, led to bloody civil wars and a refugee crisis that saw forced from their homes.
To reflect on this, then-and-now photos of conflicts in Syria, Libya and Iraq have been posted on Twitter - with thriving street scenes contrasted with stark images of crumbling buildings.
People are also posting photos of Yemen, where a three-year civil war has led to the .
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Sanaa #Yemen pic.twitter.com/WohjhXYuXO— Nadwa Dawsari (@Ndawsari) January 17, 2019
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People are also sharing some of the things that appear to have improved over the last decade.
According to statistics from the World Bank and the UN, extreme poverty is currently at its , and are both down, and has increased.
But, sadly, this doesn't show the whole picture.
While extreme poverty is at its lowest level globally, it is still getting rapidly worse in Sub-Saharan Africa - where the average extreme poverty rate is now about 41%.
And although youth literacy has increased overall, it's still lowest in less developed countries - and it affects young women more than men. According to the most recent data, 59% of all illiterate youth are girls.
While environmental damage is still very much an issue, there's no doubting that awareness of it has increased, leading many people and countries to try and switch to sustainable sources of energy.
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#10YearChallenge Rising from less than 16 GW of #solar capacity in 2009, the world has installed more than 500 GW solar today! Solar is the world’s fastest growing power generation source! #CleanEnergyEU #EnergyTransition #EU2050 #GenerationSolar pic.twitter.com/me0VPp6jaE— SolarPower Europe (@SolarPowerEU) January 17, 2019
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The International Energy Agency says that renewables , thanks in no small part to a boom in solar panel installation in China.
Source: bbc.com
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