Different people look at things from different points of view. Each person’s perception varies from one another since we are all unique from each other.
We look at things from various perspectives, from a person, attitude, occurrence, beliefs, ideas, and a whole lot more. It’s how our beautiful brains tell us what we prefer. Some people like oranges better than apples, while others like dogs rather than cats as pets at home. However, there are times when our brains confuse us.
If it was not because of the internet, a simple photograph shared online would not have us confused and debated with each other. Heated discussions can be seen through the comments section, and some topics that cause arguments could be as simple as seeing between colors.
Remember the photo that caused the biggest online commotion in 2015?
Do you remember the 2-toned dress that went viral online years back due to people’s different views of it? The photo had a caption that said, “Blue and Black or White and Gold?” What was your first pick back then? When the owner of the photo explained its true colors and how it changed when it was affected by a darker hue, did your choice change? This is how our personal perception views things in a different light. For people who have not read the owner’s explanation of the dress, then the answer to the question is uncertain.
Another photo caused heated discussions online a few years back, and this time it was a cloud formation. The photo triggered a debate between pet owners since the cloud formation raised the obvious question… “Is it a CAT or a DOG?” It was a hard one since the pet owners saw the photo from various perspectives.
When Reddit user ‘jhvk’ spotted an intriguing cloud formation in the sky 5 years ago, he did not hesitate to snap a photo of it and share it on social media.
After sharing the photo online, he captioned it with, “This cloud looks like a cat… and a dog.” Soon after, Reddit user ‘lemon-army’ commented, “It will rain cats and dogs soon.” Afterward, hundreds of other Reddit users wrote comments about their own perspectives on the cloud formation photo. However, one comment stood out from the rest when the user wrote a simple explanation of how people looked at the image differently from the other.
A now-deleted Reddit account wrote: “Considering humans make meaning out of amorphous shapes all the time, pretty damn common. There’s a scientific word for that I’ll have to find. It’s called Pareidolia. I mean, I could do the same thing with the popcorn on my ceiling or my toast. It’s still a cool concept but alas not mind-bogglingly rare.”
According to Wikipedia, Pareidolia “is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none.”
However, not only this cloud formation photo caused a heated debate online. Other photos were shared online, too. Take this “Cat chasing a dog in the clouds!” from Reddit user Jaehnig70 as an example.
Can you see the cat chasing the dog in the cloud formation? Or something else? There are times when we see things on cloud formations that our minds want us to see. More often than not, what we see is connected to a past emotion that we could not let go of.
What can you see from this image posted by Twitter user @LiaErdbeer?
Seh nur ich das Hundebaby und die Katze, die auf einer kopflosen Schildkröte reiten? pic.twitter.com/ZO40fcH0Ob
— Lia Erdbeer Nüsschen (@LiaErdbeer) May 11, 2018
It’s one of those we call “once you see it, you can never unsee it”. People are fascinated once they see it. However, people see different things from a cloud formation. Whatever your brain tells you it is, always remember that no opinion is wrong. Also, do not discredit what others comment on the same photo. Different people, various perspectives.
Watch the video below to know more about how cloud formations come to be:
Credits to: Met Office – Learn About Weather/YouTube
Keep this in mind: Whether it is a cat or a dog, it really depends on how your brain wants to conceive it. However, mother nature had nothing to do with it.
Images credit: © PEXELS
