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A TikTok video posted to Twitter on December 22, 2019 has got a section of the Twittersphere up in arms as users debate the most important question of the year: Is the person on the swing facing the building or the camera?
The 12-second clip shows a person on a swing some distance away from the camera. The video asks viewers to like if they think he is facing the camera and comment if they think he is facing the building.
Re-post cause it blew up on tiktok, which way is he facing? pic.twitter.com/hG4DY9rg0v
— T U P P E R (@ectupper) December 22, 2019
At time of writing the video has blown up on TikTok and racked up more than 800k views on Twitter, as people cannot agree which way he is facing.
"he's facing the building idc what y'all say," says @laurahndz9.
he's facing the building idc what y'all say.
— farmer laura?? (@laurahndz9) December 23, 2019
"It has to be towards you" says @HowTheFlip.
It has to be towards you, otherwise you wouldn't see him behind the pole when he's at the top right here @bugha pic.twitter.com/3Gou6s0jD2
— Trever Wagenhals (@HowTheFlip) December 22, 2019
"I just spent 10 years but i can finally see it both ways," says @TrinityJoseph02.
I just spent 10 years but i can finally see it both ways ?
— Trinity Joseph (@TrinityJoseph02) December 24, 2019
"Alot of you have never been on a swing before, and it really shows," says @asdwerxrc.
Alot of you have never been on a swing before, and it really shows.
— Anders Anders (@asdwerxrc) December 23, 2019
"He's facing yanny," says @steven_sievert.
He’s facing yanny
— Steven (@steven_sievert) December 23, 2019
The crux of the issue appears to be the bar, which might provide a definitive answer to the question what way is this person facing. The placement of the bar in front of the person as he swings backwards near the start of the clip suggests that he must be facing the camera—not the building.
User @_eniahpit posted screenshots of the video with arrows to show the positioning of the camera means that it is possible to view the clip in two different ways.
"For people wondering how some see a way and the others see another way. It's just a matter of the direction you see him balancing to.. Now I can see both ways!"
For people wondering how some see a way and the others see another way. It's just a matter of the direction you see him balancing to.. Now I can see both ways! pic.twitter.com/LEcgbRVlat
— Tiphaine (@_eniahpit) December 23, 2019
Regardless of which side of the fence you stand on this particular issue, you might find the latest illusion to go viral a welcome relief from politics this holiday period.
The dress that started it all
A photo of a blue and black dress (or is it gold and white?) went viral in 2015, causing heated debates among friends and co-workers who were in disagreement about its color.
While many (writer included) are utterly convinced the dress is gold and white (or pale blue), pictures of the dress from the manufacturer definitively show that it is blue and black.
The confusion over its color is caused by unusual lighting, which causes some people to discount the blue side—so that they see white and gold—and others to discount the gold side—so they see blue and black, Bevil Conway, a neuroscientist who studies color and vision at Wellesley College, told Wired at the time.
The dress kickstarted a new trend in viral illusions, optical and audio, from Yanny and Laurel to beach or door.
