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The latest debate dividing the internet: How you draw an 'X'

Posted at 4:35 PM, Jan 21, 2019
and last updated 2019-01-21 18:35:03-05

How do you draw an X? Seems like a simple question, doesn’t it?

But as with many deceptively complex questions that have come before it, from the legendary dress debate of 2015 to the battle over how a dog would wear pants to last year’s Yanny v. Laurel dustup, the internet is divided.

That’s thanks to a viral tweet illustrating the wide variety of ways a pen-gripping human could go about drawing the letter in question. Twitter user Kasey Ehrgott, who tweets under the handle @Smasey, posted eight variations in a graphic that has since received tens of thousands of retweets and even more responses.

No. 7 seemed to win out online, but it certainly had competition: numbers 5 and 8 proved popular as well. Ehrgott noted the deviations roughly correlated with cultural divisions, tweeting, "General consensus is that Americans do 7 & 8 while UK does 5 & 6. Probably how we were taught. Not sure about other countries."

Several users noted the way they though they wrote the letter, and the way they actually wrote it, were different -- including Ehrgott, who told ABC News she went from 7 to 8 once she wrote a word with 'X' in it.

And, because this is Twitter, teams formed and passions flared.

“What sort of animal doesn’t do 5?” tweeted one user.

“It's 7,” another tweeted. “Everyone else is wrong.”

Another: “People who do this other than #7, I don't know you.”

And so according to the internet, the correct answers are: blue/black, on the hind legs, Yanny and No. 7.