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The social media phenomenon known as #thedress, a photograph of a dress that appeared to be either blue and black or white and gold, has been called one of the most viral debates of the twenty-first century. While many scientific explanations have been offered to explain the image's mysterious color ambiguity, this article analyzes #thedress as an example of a broader genre that I call viral ambiguity illusions, images or sounds that can be perceived in two or more ways, and which invite users to share their perception through likes, comments, and hashtags. Drawing on the social dimensions of aesthetic theory (especially beauty), I argue that viral ambiguity illusions satisfy a distinctly aesthetic desire to share our diverging perceptions with others at historically unprecedented scales, forming what I call aesthetic publics. Ultimately, this aesthetic understanding of viral ambiguity illusions can help nuance assumptions about the polarizing effects of social media.

Social networks and media hosting sites have recently fostered a growing trend in meme culture: the circulation of images within strangely specific categories of pleasure such as the "oddly satisfying" and the "mildly interesting." Difficult to define but collectively recognized, what I call aesthetic category memes are made up of images of ordinary things and processes that not only exemplify such categories of pleasure, but also provoke reflection on the peculiar nature of those categories. As a result, I argue, contributors to aesthetic category memes are unwittingly engaged in a philosophical project that tests the principles of aesthetic theory. Examining the growing archive of images and comments alongside key texts in aesthetic theory, I explore how aesthetic category memes reclaim the aesthetic faculties away from the presumed passivity of sharing, consuming, and "liking" online content, thereby revealing the philosophical foundations of what it means to share and "like" at all.