What has happened to us? I mean, really?
First, we were glued to our computer screens watching the llama drama: a pair of llamas – one black, one white – escaped from an Arizona petting zoo at a care facility and darted in and out of traffic in Phoenix, Arizona, leading police on a wild alpaca chase
Then, the Internet lost its collective mind over a dress. If you didn’t see it, a woman posted a picture of a dress the mother-of-the-bride wore to her daughter’s wedding. To some, the dress appeared to be gold and white; to others, it was black and blue. Celebrities, politicians and people the world over were weighing in, dividing into camps of Team Black & Blue and Team Gold & White over #TheDress.
Turns out the dress is, in fact, black and blue (and sales for the little $79 number are up 850%). There are now dozens of articles explaining the science of why we all don’t agree on the color of the dress. I think this one from CNN.com explained it best:
“Before you strangle your best friend who sees the colors in the now-famous dress differently than you do, please know that there’s a scientific explanation.
It has to do with the tiny cones in the back of our eyeballs that perceive colors in a slightly different way depending upon our genes.
“Why do some people love cilantro and others say it tastes like soap? Why do some people have perfect pitch and others are tone deaf? It’s the same with vision – our sensory apparatus is fine tuned,” says Dr. Julia Haller, the ophthalmologist-in-chief at Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia.”
Experts who study our differences in color perception say they have never seen a photo that so perfectly captures this phenomenon. As for me, I have to agree with Michael Jackson who saw this coming years ago and wrote a song for the occasion. I paraphrase:
I believe in viral photos
But I don’t think that they’re worth a fight
If you’re thinkin’ about that dress
Folks, it don’t matter if it’s black or white
Or, as another internet user put it, burn the dress! Let’s all move on:
Happy Monday,
Mary
