Google Search: I Can See My Nose

Today I woke up and felt like a log and didn't feel like moving. Nothing unusual there. But I didn't even feel like moving my head to look at the clock and so I simply moved my eyes all the way to left. Some stupid transparent blob was blocking my view! It was obviously my nose. Everyone can see their noses all the time but we naturally ignore the image.

Now, our brains are pretty good at making sure we don't go completely insane (most of us, anyway) by taking care of a lot of little issues. Thanks to the lenses in our eyes, the light that comes in gets flipped upside down before hitting our retinas, but our good ol' brains know just what to do, and makes sure we perceive everything as right-side up. Likewise, we can always see our noses but Mr. Brainy completely ignores it so we can go about our lives.

That's most of us, anyway. When I saw my nose this morning I found it kind of funny to suddenly become self conscious like that, so I headed over to Google to see what other people thought about this. It turns out this natural, everyday, and universal experience is not always sufficiently ignored by our brains.

"What did I do to deserve this!???"

This person, Guest1198, apparently just realized she could see her nose when she looks down or forward and wants to know what could cause such a dilemma! She was recently tanning and having sinus problems. Perhaps the tanning gave her super N-Ray vision powers! She also has been having sinus problems, so maybe her sinuses just swelled up so big that she can now see her nose? She says she also has night blindness, so it could be that this is the first time she's been in a well-lit room for a while and is just amazed by even the smallest of human experiences. We can't be sure, but six people responded with answers such as, "I've always been able to see mine, is that not good?" and, "Look allll the way down, you can even see your cheeks." Mind = blown.

There are more of these similar questions too, such as this one. The post itself is kind of funny: 

"Why do i always see my nose, on both sides of my vision? like if u hold ur finger between ur eyes, it goes double. i always c my nose like that. i always thought it was normal"

But what is REALLY funny is a statement by one distressed commenter: 

"Wow you have found someone else. I see two noses in my vision, just like you described, my nose is doubled and it is extremely annoying and bothersome. The real worry is that I haven't always had this problem. I went to Africa last year and took a medication to prevent Malaria, it was called Malarone, and ever since taking that medication my vision has been "off" and my nose it constantly in my vision. At all times I see my nose doubled in my vision. I would give a lot to have my old vision back."

He would GIVE ANYTHING to have his old vision back. I guess Malarone gave him N-Ray vision too! 

This post here is my favorite I've found so far, though. She has finally conceded to the fact that she always has and always will be able to see her nose and she's not happy about it. What's worse is that she is even afraid to go out and have fun, or read, or anything because she will be concentrating on the fact that her nose is in her peripheral vision the whole time. Now, most of the responses are people just saying, "Well yeah, everyone sees their nose...." but there is a surprising number of people who say things like, "Uh oh, I've always been able to see my nose! Is that bad, am I going to die!?" Maybe I over-dramatized it a bit.

Anyway, just for fun I decided to illustrate what I am seeing at this exact moment:

Recursion!

You can clearly see my nose and the outline of my glasses. My nose looks a little weird from this angle though, maybe that's what all these people are so concerned about. By the way, I made that image by getting up reeeeally close to the screen and outlining my vision, which is admittedly a little weird, but oh well. It's too late to undo it, it happened.