Analysis of my Rhetorical Situation

In this post I'll be analyzing the rhetorical situation of my controversy post mortem- which I have changed (for a multitude of reasons) to the dispute that occurred about a year ago as to whether, based on a photo, a particular dress was white and gold or black and blue.

Hendrick, Matt. "The Dress". 3/2/2015 via Flickr. Attribution- NoDerivs 2.0 Generic.

1. The people concerned with this issue were primarily young (under 25) although the debate could be accessed by anyone in the world with an internet connection. Even if you didn't, you had probably heard about it because it had gone so viral. But I say they were young because the first discussion of the dress took place on tumblr, where young people were likely to see it. The debate then spread to Buzzfeed, then Twitter, then to every social media facet one could imagine. Since young people spend the most time on social media, they had the most exposure to it. Based on this, I can infer that they probably get their news from online sources, and they are probably middle/upper class because they have the means to access information on the dress. Additionally, while they may care about things that are worthwhile, this is definitely not one of them. Some people got very passionate about how they felt, so some of the things this generation really feels strongly about may not be worth the amount of time and energy they are giving it. They probably value things that are popular in the moment, things that have gone viral- without really considering that in a couple months it won't be anything more than a played-out meme.

2. This issue was eventually resolved with a scientific reason as to why different people see different colors, but it's a little complicated so either this demographic didn't take the time to find out, or by the time the reason became public, they simply didn't care any more. So what I want to do is make the reason more accessible- to condense it into layman's terms. I want the readers to be aware of the scientists that have pondered this, and who first opened the debate. The time period does pose a dilemma though, because anyone who still cares about the dress probably already knows why different people see different colors. Many people are probably just done worrying about this dress.

3. I want to bring the scientific reality of the different colors to the generation that cared about why we see different colors in a way that makes it relatively easy to understand. I'm interested in this story because first of all, I seemed to be the minority in seeing white and gold. Secondly, it's a part of both pop culture and psychology/neuroscience, which are my interests being a young person in the pre-med psychology major. I'm perfect to write about this because my area of expertise and desired area of expertise coincide in this one issue.