It can often be difficult to keep up with social media but recently one debate has been extremely prominent among teenagers and young adults. It has divided and brought together people from all walks of life, sparked numerous heated debates, and probably even parted seas: Is water wet?

If you aren’t aware of the recent popularity of the debate on social media you might think the concept is illogical. The term “wet” is often used to describe water and objects saturated in water/other liquids.

This might cause some not think upon the subject and immediately conclude that the compound is, in fact, wet. However, when one ponders on the topic, they might be confused and not know what to believe.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “wet” as “consisting of, containing, covered with, or soaked with liquid (such as water).” This still doesn’t answer all of our questions, however.

Writer Ewan Sweeney from a post on debate.org said “The reason it feels as it feels when water touches the skin is actually a complex electro-chemical reaction which works at amazing speeds. The sensory inputs are a combination of your body’s pH at that moment, the water’s pH, your body’s temperature at that moment, the water’s temperature, the atmospheric pressure, and molecular polarity.”

So, from a scientific perspective, “wet” describes the connection between human skin and water, recognizing where the term was originally established.  

According to theguardian.com, the liquid substance cannot be defined as wet. Writer Jacqueline Castles said “Water isn’t wet. Wetness is a description of our experience of water; what happens to us when we come into contact with water in such a way that it impinges on our state of being. We, or our possessions, ‘get wet’.”

There’s our answer, water is not wet. The term “wet” can only be appropriately used to describe someone or something that has come in contact with water and has physically changed because of such an occurrence. Water itself is not and cannot be wet.