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Western Wisconsin COVID-19 Archive Project

Collected Item: “Engine light”

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Image

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Engine light

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Originally I had planned on having a collage of memes similar to this particular one but unfortunately I could not make it work but this specific one encapsulates my intentions, as well as my own experience. This reference is a bit dated in the fact that it makes a reference of it happening over a few weeks but that is what makes it all the more interesting in a sense. Facebook was where I found this and there were many reactions to it, many of which were in agreement to this, after just a few weeks of covid and lockdowns people were already sick of it. Couple of weeks turned into months and those months turned into one year and three months, roughly, so now people are really sick of it; some want to get back to proper work hours and others just want to go about things they enjoy normally. Most people were obviously concerned at first when they heard of an “un-specified virus of unknown origin” but now it's gotten to the point where people don't really care and are just annoyed by it. Similar to how you constantly see a check engine light that just won't go away, you see it everyday just sitting there and after seeing or hearing about it all the time people just want to go on with their lives like normal.
What makes this so interesting as a primary source is that we have a take on just one certain point in the pandemic, an earlier point at that, that is displayed just by one person but comes across in a way that many people agreed with at the time. With the nature of this meme being pretty funny and displayed in a way that people can relate, I am willing to bet there are a lot of people that have seen their check engine light and worried about it, only to get sick of it and ignore it if there are no immediate problems for them. Researchers can look at this thought process and compare it to overall feelings at that relative point in the pandemic and look at the general consensus that is seen now, which is similar and has actually grown in many areas.
We see this situation of a small opinion at one point grow into something much bigger later on within some of the histories we have learned, even in more “recent years”. When we look at the situation with Fidel Castro, he started off as kind of small time so to say, going against the current situation of the government and what it was doing. After much more time and as his points and views about the government were true we see the general views that the people had line up with his views and then his beliefs were not so far fetched.

When was this item created? Please use a "month day, year" format, for example, "April 10, 2020."

June, 11,2021

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Social media

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#UWECHIST172

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