Last night was one of the most fascinating nights I’ve had online in a long time.
It started when someone on Facebook posted a picture of what to me looked like a gold and white dress, saying obviously it was blue and black and she couldn’t understand why people were saying anything else.
What?! It was obviously gold and white!
I read the article, read the comments and posted it on my own page.
Immediately, my friends started weighing in and their answers were all over the board. In fact, some of them came back to say they now saw it differently than they had before.
Suddenly #thedress was trending.
People were freaking out. Twitter was blowing up. Taylor Swift and Mindy Kaling put in their two cents.
My daughter called and we cried laughing over people’s responses. Someone posted a picture of Golden Oreos and wrote, “Remember when they were blue and black?” Someone else wrote, “Maybe I’m dead. I’m going to the ER.” A doctor Tweeted: “What I’ve learned from the dress debate: You never know where your next existential crisis is going to come from.”
Experts were called on for scientific explanations about why the vast majority of us saw gold and white and the rest saw blue and black. I still don’t understand it but I was absolutely enthralled.
Because, for the first time that I can remember, almost every single person tried to see it through the other person’s eyes. They genuinely wanted to understand how someone else could see the same thing so differently.
Wow.
Not to put too fine a point on it but, come on, people. If we can make this effort over a silly dress, why can’t we do it in the areas of life that really matter?
This whole dress thing may have actually changed the way I look at life — especially because, somehow, I can now only see it as blue and black.
You took this to an unexpected place and level, and now I’m the one thinking! Thank you!
Would love an explanation. I see the dress as blue and brown (can’t call it gold). What else am I not seeing the same as everyone else?
the first time ai saw the dress, it was black and blue. Couldn’t see the gold and white at all. Then, throughout the day, all I saw were postings of gold and white. I guess it depends on light and time of day???
Wow, Lois! What a wonderful, powerful, wise perspective! Thank you!! xoxo
OK I’m still seeing white and gold but I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Maybe the OP is color blind so I’ll just along with what they think.
Mostly I see the gold and white version, but for a split second earlier today I could see how it could be black and blue. Very very bizarre!
You really took this to another place. Now I need to see it from the other side because I am apparently missing something. i saw black and blue but no gold so now i want to see it from the other side. I’m perplexed.
We spotted this all over FB this morning….. and I must say it surprised me that my husband sees it differently than I do. I am the white and gold viewer and he sees blue and brown. We’ve been selecting items for a small remodel in our home, and now I am wondering if we agreed on the same things. This should be interesting.
However. I agree with your other followers: channel this much energy towards something important…. and the results might be meaningful.
You know what, I saw that durn dress as white and gold…until I pulled up your blog post. What kind of dark magic is this?!?!?!
Glad you came to that conclusion because honestly? I thought this was too silly, but at least we stopped talking about ISIS, the Kardashians and net neutrality, if even for a few hours!
Let us all walk around in each other’s shoes. Every. Single. Day.
I must have missed this whole thing last night because this is the first time I am seeing “the dress”. Frankly, it’s pretty ugly, so I am glad I missed it 😉
This one passed me by. But, just so you all know, the dress is lavender and gold. What is wrong with y’all??
So funny. I’d not been paying attention to the whole flap, just kept scrolling past the photos on FB (which I sometimes saw white/gold, others blue/black) as I assumed it was something related to the Oscars. When Connie Schultz (whom I follow) questioned it on FB, I took notice. Now I know… and wonder!! My daughter called minutes later to share a wacky conversation with her husband on it (they see opposite colors) and how she then asked my three-year-old grandson what color it was — and he was a bit panicked by how important it seemed to Mommy. “White and brown” he said. The six-year-old said, “Purple and black.” Go figure.
Haha I saw this all kick off before I went to bed last night I shared it with some friends and then suddenly it was everywhere.
Apparently it is blue / black but the picture is over exposed – however the dress is available in both colours. x
I finally looked at this today. Mine was blue and black. I am still bewildered by it.
I love that you put everything into such a great perspective. You know, it is also about respect.
Wise words and the perfect take on this whole thing! Shift your perspective and see the world as others see it! I love that this is where you ended and just another reason to love you Lois!
People went crazy over this dress thing and I didn’t even understand it at all.
What a fantastic point you make!!! The dress changes colors back and forth on me. I see it both ways. That is often my road in life though, I see both sides to a certain degree.
I saw it as blue and black, and I have no idea how to see it as gold and white. It seemed like a lot of drama over a dress though! The internet has a lot of power when it puts its power to something.
The dress seen round the world. Gold and white here. Can’t see blue and black no matter how hard I try.
Sometimes people just need something fun and different in their day and although this whole thing seemed pretty ridiculous to some, it probably was just what the world needs right now.
This whole dress thing is ridiculous. Crazy how something like this can go viral.
No matter how many times I look at it, it is always white and gold. It was blue and brown when I first looked, but I don’t see it other than white and gold now. That stupid dress really did blow up!
It’s gold and white. I hated this whole debate happening on line. It was so ridiculous that it was viral. There’s so much real stuff to talk about to help people change the world for the better. The dress thing made me a bit crazy.
White & gold for the win! I’m seriously over #thedress, but you brought up a good point about looking at others’ perspectives.
I saw it as white and gold too but later on another show I saw it as black and blue.
Oh man. The dress. I just can’t even. I only see white and gold…. Washed out colors is what it is and super not pretty lol. I hope it blows over quickly.
This whole dress thing is making me nuts! I posted about it as well yesterday asking pretty much the same questions. It’s astounding what goes viral these days.
I think is blue and black, but everyone has a different opinion 😀
That’s funny about the dress. My husband hasn’t seen it yet, I’m going to show him when he gets home. 🙂
I just see the Gold & White combination & wonder how the same appears different to different people. I do agree that we must honestly step in to the areas of life that really matters so much.
Sometimes social media is just …. so …. weird. LOL I saw a few people sharing the dress and asking about it. Had no idea until your post that it had become a trending issue. Really? People get this worked up over a dress but not the stuff going on every day that truly matter. *Sigh*
To be honest I was so tired of the dress blowing up my feeds. But you are right it got people talking.
So tired of this dress! It’s obviously an improperly exposed photo.
The whole dress thing started to get on my nerves. You didn’t really need a scientific explination to figure out that it was all about shadows and how those shadows looked to you on your viewing screen. I had a good laugh about some of the people who were literally screaming (you know, it all caps) about how dumb so and so was because they couldn’t possibly be right. I had the best time when the memes started to roll in about the dress and its colors. Even today my news feed is flooded with the dress and those memes.
The day the ugly dress broke the internet. Right up there with Spock passing away. I’d like to see a comparison of the two posts from the major sites like BuzzFeed, Mashable and Huffington Post.
Its amazing how something so simple can go viral these days.
I see white and gold. And I completely agree with you. “If we can make this effort over a silly dress, why can’t we do it in the areas of life that really matter?” Amen.