The Ryker Webb meme originated from the 2022 survival story of a three-year-old boy who spent two days lost in the Montana wilderness. After being rescued, a photo of Ryker surfaced showing a wide-eyed, haunted expression that many dubbed the 'thousand-yard stare.' While the original story was one of relief and survival, the internet quickly turned the image into a reaction meme to represent being mentally scarred or deeply disturbed by information. It is frequently used on platforms like TikTok and X (formerly Twitter) to depict the feeling of witnessing something so shocking or unhinged that it leaves you perpetually stunned and unable to look away.