Hey guys

I‘ve been playing a lot of Blues songs and some solos that require a lot of bending. 
On thing I noticed is that sometimes the players pull down and sometimes they push up when bending. 
I‘ve tried this out and compared the two techniques to see if I can hear any difference in the created sounds - but it seems to sound the same, no?
For me I find it easier to pull down (towards the ground) on the strings compared to pushing up. 

So in which situations is either technique applied? Does it matter?