The Internet Loves Freaking Out Over Optical Illusions
The internet builds community in the most random ways.
Once again, the internet has been thrown into chaos by a picture that’s playing tricks on the human eye. This time around, people couldn’t figure out what was exactly going on with Instagram user leonardhoespams’s legs. While the caption of the photo was “i like the feeling of paint on my skin,” other people weren’t so sure. Many at first glance thought that the two extremities were just extremely shiny or oily.
This isn’t the first time an image like this has freaked out masses of people and it’s not going to be the last. Moments similar to this exemplify one of the best parts of the internet — people from all over are brought together by their bewilderment over things their mind can’t exactly comprehend right away.
Leonardhoespams has since deleted the picture from their Instagram and made their account private, but of course it has been preserved by the internet. It’s even become an entry on Know Your Meme.
The photo of the legs eventually crossed into other social network like Twitter. There, the response was amazing. Various tweets of the picture had more than 15,000 retweets each, just furthering the reach of these puzzling limbs.
Some posed the question to the rest of the internet.
Others just accepted what was in front of them and the fact that they would be forever mindfucked by the idea that these were glossy legs instead of just being some random streaks of white paint.
The internet loves obsessing over these viral moments that require a double take. In early 2015, the dress that appeared to be black and blue to some and white and gold to others was the most talked about topic for the month. And Hot Dog Legs had people tripping out over sausages that were just so darn flesh-like. In fact, this latest leg illusion wasn’t even the only picture that made people do a double take this week. Another section of the internet couldn’t decide if a celebrity picture was Tom Hanks or Bill Murray.
Optical illusions are inherently social because they make viewers want to talk with one another about what they see. Putting those kinds of images online — even if they’re as frivolous as a pair of legs — for anyone and everyone to connect over is what the internet was meant for.
