Cek Fakta: Peristiwa 1.000 Tahun Sekali, Umur Semua Manusia Sama pada 2020?

Cek Fakta Liputan6.com menelusuri kebenaran klaim tersebut lewat pencarian Google Search menggunakan kata kunci 'everyone's age is the same, happens every thousand years'.

Hasil pencarian mengarah pada situs truthorfiction.com dengan judul artikel "Does Adding Your Birth Year to Your Age Total The Year Number Once a Millennium?" yang dimuat pada 1 November 2019.

Berikut isinya:

"All the people in the world are of the same age this year! It’s amazing: this year all the people in the world are in the same age group, all equal to 2019. This year is special. It happens only once every 1,000 years. This year your age + your year of birth, each individual is = 2019. For example, you are 55 years old and you were born in 1964, which adds up to 2019. Very strange, even the Chinese and foreign masters can not explain. Please calculate and see if the answer is 2019. It’s a thousand-year wait! Good shot! Go to the circle of friends, let everybody calculate it!"

It seems impressive, as by the ninth month of the year, the majority of people have already had a birthday. But iterations of the “birth year + age equals the current year” only happening every thousand years circulated earlier in 2019 and in 2018 (on December 18) as well:

Another element was that in every popular version’s comment sections: Some (but not all) commenters said that the numbers added up to the previous year, not the current one:

“Hmm I got 2018, did I math wrong?”

“Boo didn’t work for me. Gave me 2018”

A simple explanation exists for both the math itself, the above comments, and even the meme’s cyclical spread.

The year you were born added to your age will always add up to the current year — after your birthday that particular year. However, if your birthday is later in the year, the calculation will produce the previous year. As one blogger noted in 2017, that disparity completely disappears on December 31 of any given year:

It’s actually the case on 31 December every year. It also works for anybody on any day of the year after their birthday. I guess you could say that 31 December this year will be the only day EVER when everybody in the world will get 2019 if they add their age plus year of birth. (And next year, 31 December will be the only day EVER when everybody in the world will get 2020 if they add their age plus year of birth.)

As for the third matter — the claim’s repeated spread — that is because at its core, the meme is an ideal way to drive Facebook shares, Twitter retweets, and visits to a blog. In its 2019 form, the meme also featured additional elements to exacerbate its spread:

This only happens every 1,000 years;No one can explain it;Experts/Chinese people/”foreign masters”/astrologists are stumped;…and no one knows whyA tacit sense of urgency or claims that something interesting is inexplicable drives interest and sharing or clicking. On its own, the claim looks interesting to people who haven’t thought it through. Coupling that initial lack of understanding with mystical sounding elements essentially ensures the meme’s enduring virality. Finally, everyone has a birthday, giving the claim a much wider appeal.

Although it’s technically true that adding your age (in the majority of people) and your birth year equalled 2019 in 2019, we’re rating this claim “not true” because it’s not a rare occurrence, it’s not a mystery, almost anyone can explain it, no experts are befuddled by it, and it’s true for any year. Your birth year plus your age (if your birthday has already occurred) will always equal the current year, for every single year in existence."

Dari artikel tersebut diketahui bahwa klaim peristiwa langka yang konon terjadi tiap 1.000 tahun sekali tersebut ternyata juga menyebar pada 2019 dan 2018.

Unggahan semacam itu efektif untuk mendongkrak share Facebook, retweet Twitter, dan kunjungan ke blog tertentu.

Situs snopes.com dengan judul artikel "Does Adding Your Age to Your Birth Year Equal 2,018 for ‘One Day Only’?" yang dimuat pada 5 Oktober 2018, juga membantah klaim mengenai kesamaan usia semua manusia pada tahun tertentu.

Berikut isinya:

"In logical terms, the reason this meme sometimes tricks people into believing they have witnessed something incredible or meaningful is that it expresses your age and your birth year as two separate facts, rather than explaining (as we all actually know) that your age is a function of your birth year. You are the age you are because your age is the number of full years that have passed since you were born."

Dalam artikel tersebut menyebut, klaim peristiwa langka 1.000 tahun sekali setiap manusia memiliki umur yang sama adalah tidak benar. 

Tak harus menanti 1.000 tahun lamanya, peristiwa tersebut akan terjadi setiap tahunnya. Sebagai ilustrasi, kita menerapkan rumus usia pada tahun tertentu + tahun lahir, untuk seseorang yang lahir pada tahun 2000. 

Tahun 2000: usia 0 tahun + 2000 

Tahun 2001: usia 1 tahun + 2000

Tahun 2002: usia 2 tahun + 2000, dan seterusnya....

Tahun 2020: usia 20 tahun + 2000.

Klaim yang menyebut bahwa umur semua manusia sama pada 2020 -- dengan menambahkan usia pada 2019 dengan tahun kelahiran maka hasilnya akan sama yaitu 2020 -- merupakan peristiwa langka 1.000 tahun sekali adalah tidak benar. 

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