First, there was the blue dress and gold dress.
One picture, one dress – that half the world saw as blue and half as gold, and everyone thought it was bizarre that their friends and colleagues couldn’t see what they saw.
Today, one word that sounds completely different to two people has hit the airwaves and sparked more friendly, online debate.
Yanny or Laurel, Listen Here:
“What Can You Hear: Yanny or Laurel?” became an Internet sensation earlier this month, as the illusion that begs you to ask the question, “How different is my reality from everyone else’s?”
Part of the reason for the virality of these audio and visual illusions, we believe, is because it’s both fun and distressing to watch (or hear) the fabric of your reality unwind.
What the Yanny or Laurel Data Sounded Like:
Global media intelligence company, Meltwater, monitored and analysed the data to discover which word, Yanny or Laurel, the internet is hearing.
From the moment it was first released on 17 May, the conversation quickly escalated out of control, totalling over 250 000 mentions and reaching a peak of 74 500.
When we broke it down though, Laurel had more mentions without Yanny than vice versa.
Most social media users were using the hashtags “#TeamLaurel” and “#TeamYanny” to choose their side. “#TeamLaurel” dominated 54% of the conversation, in comparison to “#TeamYanny” with 46%. So according to the data, there is no confusion what the internet heard: #TeamLaurel acolytes can rejoice victoriously.
There were a number of topics and themes that trended as they were mentioned with both Yanny and Laurel.
One of them was “government” – this term trended in the US due to the “Yanny or Laurel” illusion reaching the White House where the government also had a turn at hearing the recording and disagreeing on who heard what.
The term “gun control” trended – when analysed, several Tweets sarcastically poked fun at legislation for focusing on something as trivial as “Do you hear Yanny or Laurel?” instead of regulations surrounding gun control, which is a much more serious issue.
With nearly 300 000 likes and over 93 000 retweets, a single tweet went viral based on its relevance – addressing two highly topical news stories – and social commentary.
On Thursday the 17th, Mark Hamill tweeted to his audience of 2, 8 million followers, “What interests you the most?” and then listed the Royal wedding, the Yanny or Laurel debate, the Batman prequel and the War against Xmas as options.
This would have been the reason that Batman, Xmas and the Royal wedding also appeared as trending alongside “Yanny or Laurel” mentions.
This Post was compiled with copy and data in Collaboration with Meltwater
