While most of us might try and act like we're a cut above all the crackpots and dumdums that we come across on our travels across the internet, deep down most of us are not that much different from those that we point and laugh at. No matter how well it gets camouflaged, beneath the surface we're all chin-stroking, devil's advocate loving Reddit trolls, incapable of forming an opinion without dunking every last tortured braincell in an acid bath of smug logical fallacies.
Like a moth to a flame, the average social media user has an unstoppable attraction to the element of debate. It doesn't matter how stupid or pointless the topic is — in fact, that makes the whole thing even better. So long as we can hash out our convoluted opinions into a passionate argument that seems to have no end, that precious dopamine will keep snapping between our synapses consistently.
Many of the disputes that spring to mind when we think of famous internet showdowns are the kind of thing that you would fall out with your friend about for no good reason. Many people still can't think about The Dress, for example, without getting hot under the collar; the mere mention of Yanny vs. Laurel has the distorted audio ringing in your ears. There's also usually an uncertain, interpretative element to all of this, too, giving an already murky problem some confounding explanations from either side.
It comes as no surprise that the latest obsession actually does come from a stupid debate between friends. We may have moved on from visual and auditory illusions being the obsession of the moment, but the confusing and seemingly random nature of these is as relevant as ever. We've been overdue a dumb internet argument for some time, so it makes sense that the one that we're presented with today is more complex than ever. Are there more doors or wheels in the world overall?
It's not a question that many of us might have considered before it went viral, but now, it seems to be the only thing some can think about. There are a hell of a lot of buildings in the world, but there's also a lot of vehicles. Also, what constitutes a wheel, or a door? The more you think about it, the more infuriating it becomes. Nonetheless, those who have got involved in the conundrum have become ardent defenders of their various points of view, with some even going as far as trying to prove the math behind their reasoning. We might never count every last one of either of these objects, but at least we can rest easy in the knowledge that now, there's probably somebody out there that has tried.
