Those who live without social media have managed to blissfully avoid all posts, discussions, debates and even heated arguments over whether that disembodied voice said "Yanny" or "Laurel."
And we suspect a good many other folks wish they could say the same.
For those who don't know, a recording has been floating around the Internet since Tuesday, most prominently on Instagram and Facebook, that has many folks puzzled. If you play the recording you will hear a name repeated over and over. You may hear Yanny or you may hear Laurel. And you will be absolutely certain of what you heard-some folks so much so they get downright aggravated when their perception is challenged.
But here's the deal: Not everyone hears the same thing. You can listen with another person and it's possible they will hear one name while you insist the voice said the other.
Pretty freaky. And that's made this recording the viral sensation of the year.
There is a scientific explanation, of course. The sound itself is ambiguous, though if you listen you'll likely hear it quite clearly. But what you hear depends on a number of factors including the frequency of the recording the device that plays it back and even each listener's age-our ability to hear and interpret sounds at different frequencies changes over time. Yanny is more common at higher frequencies while Laurel is more often heard at low playbacks. That means if you change the frequency of the playback, you might hear something different. The New York Times even offered a n online tool to help you do just that.
How long the the hoopla will continue is anyone's guess. But you can be sure something else will come along down the pike to make the Internet forget and move on to something new. We can't imagine what it will be, but then who could have predicted the Yanny/Laurel hysteria?