When You Gotta Lock In

About

When You Gotta Lock In refers to a phrasal template used to describe the act of concentrating, focusing, or "zoning in." It is often used as part of the catchphrase, "When the face ID fucking up and I gotta lock in." Memes showing an expressive face followed by a more serious "locked in" face grew popular in the year 2023.

Origin

An April 9th, 2009 entry on Urban Dictionary^[1] by user NicLydon gives a definition for the phrase "Lock in," saying it means, "Get Extra Extra focused on your dream."

Use of the phrase "gotta lock in" can be traced as far back as the year 2011 on X (formerly Twitter), as seen in an April 21st, 2011 post by @kingryan91,^[2] and a July 26th, 2012 post by @CeejayLeggett7^[3] (seen below).

Spread

On August 16th, 2023 Instagram^[4] page @uranus posted a meme showing two crying emojis and a young man emoji captioned, "when the face ID fuckin up and I gotta lock in." The post gathered over 7,000 likes in three months (seen below, left). On October 2nd, Instagram^[5] page @mutua.ly posted a meme showing a crying and then straight-faced baby, gathering over 1,000 likes in a month (seen below, right).

On October 2nd, Instagram^[6] page @igotsucc.v2 posted a meme that read, "When you drunk and high as fuck in 7-11 and you gotta lock in to talk to the cashier." The post gathered over 20,000 likes in a month (seen below, left). On October 18th, Instagram^[7] page @indianhoodmoments posted a version of the meme as well, gathering over 10,000 likes in two weeks (seen below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References