Written by How many people does it take to change a light bulb?
It’s a joke that has roots dating back to the 1960’s. It was generally used to insult the intelligence of people in a humorous manner. It also started out as a way to ease tensions between two parties. For example:
Q. How many Polacks does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Three. One to hold the light bulb and two to turn the ladder.
In a friendly scenario, all would laugh, order up another round of drinks and potentially become friends for life.
It later evolved into responses to current events, particularly those related to energy and political power. It became more derogatory in tone and also started losing it’s ability to ease tensions.
Enter the social media era and now, for the most part, easing tensions is not even a consideration. Everyone now has a place to foster their hate. We also have a place to demonstrate our ignorance and opinion. Over the years it’s become something so vile and viscous that a simple conversation often leads to abuse.
Lets see the 1960’s light bulb joke today. We will use X as a reference only:
Q: How many people does it take to change a lightbulb on an X post?
• 1 to change the light bulb and post that the light bulb has been changed.
• 14 to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.
• 7 to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.
• 17 purists who use candles and are offended by light bulb discussions.
• 6 to argue over whether it’s ‘lightbulb’ or ‘light bulb’.
• Another 6 to condemn those 6 as stupid.
• 22 to tell THOSE 6 to stop being jackasses.
• 2 industry professionals to inform the group that the proper term is ‘lamp’.
• 15 know-it-alls who claim they were in the industry, and that ‘light bulb’ is perfectly correct.
• 249 to post memes and gifs (several are of someone eating popcorn with the words added, “I’m just here for the comments.”)
• 19 to post that this page is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a light bulb page.
• 11 to defend the posting to this page saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant here.
• 12 to post F.
• 8 to ask what F means.
• 16 to post ‘Following’ but there’s 3 dots at the top right that means you don’t have to.
• 3 to say “can’t share”
• 2 to reply “can’t share from a closed group”
• 36 People to post pics of their own light bulbs.
• 4 to say “Didn’t we go through this already a short time ago?”.
• 13 to say “Do a search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs”.
• 1 to bring politics into the discussion by adding that (insert politician of choice) isn’t the brightest bulb. This usually takes place within the first three comments.
• 50 more to get into personal attacks over their political views.
• 5 admins to ban the light bulb posters who took it all too seriously.
• 1 late arrival to comment on the original post 6 months later and start it all over again.
• 1 Fact checker to over rule everyone and enforce the opinions of those who pay their salary.
So what is the moral of the story? Don’t get offended, do not take it personal.
As Veterans, most of us don’t really say much beyond humor on civilian social media to begin with. In addition, our minds are often boggled by what we are seeing which lends to thinking “wow, this is the Freedom that I fought for?”. As a bonus, all of this leads to a feeling of remorse and sadness for humanity.
If we do speak out on public civilian forums, it’s often after careful consideration and not just to simply to get our opinion out into the universe for all to see forever. For those Veterans that do, good for you for opening your heart – that’s healthy.
You also have to consider the above example and expect the worst. Its unfortunate, but that is simply the way it is today. As described in the above example, nobody is specifically attempting to trigger you personally.
In addition, the numbers in the USA regarding our education system (approximately only 13% of the population have an advanced degree) demonstrate that our chances are quite high to run into those that are not the brightest bulbs (pun intended) to begin with.
Add the fact that a lot of those same people have never traveled, experienced other cultures, nor have ever been exposed to anything remotely difficult as we have. Hence, their perspective is very limited.
Finally, they say that 90% of the noise is created by 10% of the masses. This is true for business marketing and more. Now you see what that 10% is made up from in regards to civilian social media.
The hope is that if you were previously upset because you thought that you were the target on social media, you now understand it’s more than likely not you – it really is them this time. On the other hand, if you now see where you are one the 520 people trying to change the light bulb (in the above example), its time to reflect and decide if that is who you really want to be.
