The Internet Can’t Decide Which Direction This Person Is Swinging

Every so often, a piece of ephemera comes along that completely confuses the Internet, as they question whether a dress is black and blue or white and gold or a disembodied voice said “Yanny” or “Laurel”. It looks like 2019 couldn’t come to a close without its own debate over an optical illusion — and this one is a doozy. On Sunday, Twitter user @ectupper shared a video of someone on a swing, in which it’s not entirely clear which direction he’s facing. Depending on how you view the video – even multiple times – it either looks like the person is either facing the camera or facing the building in the background.

The question has plagued the Internet ever since, with people resorting to physics and a lot of hand-drawn visual aids to get their point across. At the end of the day, some are still unsure exactly what the truth is — and it sounds like that’s part of the fun.

“The first assumption is that there is an objective, single, correct interpretation of sounds and colors, which isn’t true at all — we’re always using context to interpret even the most basic of stimuli,” Abby Walker, an assistant professor and co-director of the Speech Lab at Virginia Tech told Refinery29 in 2018. “The second assumption is that other people see the world the same way we do. The fun of these particular examples is that you can share a bed and political views and taste in music and DNA with someone, and then realize in a moment that you still experience the same things differently.”

So, if you’re looking for something baffling – but completely inconsequential – to debate about with your loved ones this holiday season, venture forward and see what people are saying about the person on the swing.

Confused

One Possibility

Evidence

Helpful

Anticlimactic

Welp

Helpful

LOL