Life

How To Fix Google Chrome Turning Text Upside Down

OK, so yesterday I was minding my business on the Star Trek wiki page (er, I mean Twitter) when all of a sudden I realized that my Google Chrome search bar was turning text upside down. At first, I wondered if my tea got jacked up with hallucinogens, but no. It was very real and very annoying. Whenever I tried to type something into the Chrome search bar—a link, web page, or question—I saw all of my works turned upside down, but only in the search engine bar, and only when I was physically typing in it. As soon as I was done typing, it put itself right-side up again. What the what?!

Well, I hit social media last night when I got really fed up by it and am somewhat relieved to know that I'm not the only one experiencing this issue. Google Chrome users all over the internet are suffering at the mighty hands of this mind trip. It happened to most of us on or around April 20, so a lot of people assumed it was a 4/20 prank (har har, Google), but unfortunately it still hasn't worn off, even for those of us that have tried just about everything in the book.

If your computer is jacked the way that mine is right now, then you might recognize this photo all too well:

Here are some other Twitter users experiencing the same madness (as you can see, we are all none too pleased):

OK, so we're all very frustrated now, and rightly so. While I can't offer you a permanent solution, I can share with you the temporary Google Chrome upside down text fix that someone else posted on the internet. Here goes:

Go to Chrome Preferences

It should turn into its own tab, like this one.

Search "hardware acceleration," and uncheck the box

Don't ask me what this means. I don't know and probably never will. But it stopped my text from turning itself upside down—or at least, it did for a few hours. I woke up this morning and it was jacked all over again.

So yeah, I don't know why this is happening or when it will stop. If it helps anyone, my operating system is Yosemite, and my Macbook computer is a year and a half old. Maybe if we all find a common thread we can make more sense of this? IDK, fellow interneters.

In any case, while Google Chrome sorts this all out (Bustle has reached out to Chrome for help, and we'll update this post when we hear something back), I have a few theories about what's going to happen:

This is a psychological test

Remember when Facebook was accused of experimenting on users by altering their newsfeed configurations to see how they would react? Google Chrome is doing the same thing to us. (Conclusion: We are reacting poorly. We don't like this. It makes our eyeballs hurt.)

We are all about to be Raptured, and only the chosen ones are seeing things upside down

Later, haters.

Google Chrome actually has no idea what's happening and we are all doomed to a miserable upside down existence

Halllp.

Images: Getty Images; Emma Lord; Giphy(3)