Confusion over the exact colour of the dress appearing in a picture on Tumblr triggered a frenzied atmosphere on social media on Thursday and Friday, leading to a long and endless debate.
The problem with the picture is that there is no general consensus on what exactly the colour of the dress is. While many say it has a tinge of white and gold, many swear that the dress is blue and black.
The hastags #TheDress #WhiteAndGold, and #BlueAndBlack have been trending on Twitter over this debate.
Questions are now been raised on whether this is a big collective hoax that people are intentionally creating in order to create frenzy and further confusion, or whether people are indeed seeing different shades of colour in an unknown and bizarre phenomenon.
Popular news websites such as Buzzfeed and Gawker quickly picked up the story asking people what they thought the colour of the dress was.
Ok everybody, it hits the internet. is it #blueandblack or #whiteandgold ? Share with us what you see! #TheDress pic.twitter.com/XUV9Z9HKJU
— Turi Beach Resort (@turibeach) February 27, 2015
The picture was first posted in Tumblr by a user called Swiked, who said: "Swear to you it's no hoax. I saw the dress in real life, it's blue and black...
"Some people just see this pic as white and gold. I DON'T HAVE ANY ANSWERS BUT I NEED THEM."
The user has named the controversy as "DressGate".
The confusion over the colour of the dress indeed seems to be maddening, although one can't be certain people are serious. Buzzfeed asked its audience what they thought about it; about 73 percent respondents said it was "White and gold", while the rest argued it was blue and black.
The author of this article believes that the dress actually appears to be blue with a brownish tinge, while viewed in his computer. However, there are few theories explaining why the dress might appear to be differently coloured for different people.
Many people discussing the issue on social media believe that a change in colour might be appearing due to different computer screens. While many believe that the angle of the computer screen might play a role in determining the colour, others believe people are lying about what exactly they are seeing.
Another bizarre theory circulating online says that those people who saw the dress as blue and black have "negative attitudes" while those who saw it as white and gold were positive.
We would like our readers to determine what they think about this 'Great DressGate Controversy'!
