The question was posed on Twitter on Wednesday by curious 14-year-old Ava Munro. Little did she know her color query would infect the minds of Twitter users and effectively break the internet once more. Soon enough, people were having all-out battles about it, using #theshoe. However, the funny thing about this debate is how over it people already seem to be despite the fact that the arguments continue. Here are some of the best responses to date.
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Even Ava, the 14-year-old creator, felt bad about taking the world down another color trend spiral. She told BuzzFeed News that she was just trying to match nail polish to an outfit for an event on Sunday hosted by the nonprofit 15-40 Connection, which raises awareness for cancer. Well, at least this social media torture was all in the name of a good cause. When her friends didn't have a good answer, she asked Twitter and was not at all prepared for the response.
Ava
To rein in some of the madness, news outlets surveyed their readers to find out which nail polish color was the favorite match. BuzzFeed's results found that 65 percent were sure it's the one on the right (the more magenta-ish-looking polish), while 35 percent said it was the one on the left (the more purple-ish-looking polish). So that seems like a pretty overwhelming majority, right? Well, it would be, if people would just stop changing their minds!
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So why is this happening to us? According to Nina Frazier Hansen, the creative director of Breaking Media, it's a basic trick our eyes play on our brain. She told Bustle, “It’s a well-known optical illusion. Our brains interpret the shadows we see (in this case caused by the camera flash) and depending on whether our brains focus on the highlight or the shadow, it determines which color they perceive the 'true' color to be. It also explains how people can switch back and forth, sometimes seeing one color as the match, then the other.” OK, I suppose that makes sense — it's like those 3-D shapes that look like they're jumping out at you one second, then going into the page the next. However, that essentially means the debate is unsolvable. Thanks, Nina Frazier Hansen!
Sadly, this brain trick has also made Ms. Munro's decision on what to wear this Sunday that much harder. However, she made the choice to inflict this debate on the public, so I think she deserves a little extra indecisiveness.
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