Is the Glass Half Empty or Half Full? It’s the Full Bottle

A minimalist vodak bottle in black and white lying on a stone surface.

You certainly know the metaphor with the glass and the liquid. You don’t? Let me recount it:

For some people the glass is half full and for others half empty.

The trick is that both see the same glass and it’s just their mindset.

Objectively viewed the glass is 50% filled and 50% empty.

It’s featured in lots of more or less uplifting Hollywood movies like Groundhog Day for example:


Is the Glass Half Full or Half Empty?

As you see above the movie scene from Groundhog Day is a bit on the pessimistic side.

In simplified terms the glass half full/half empty metaphor goes something like this:

Two guys sit in a bar and get drinks served. When the bartender brings the glasses it becomes apparent that both drinks contain 50% liquid and 50% air. One of the guys is dissatisfied while the other is happy about that.

One guy is convinced that his glass is half empty while the other guy’s glass is half full in contrast.

Now usually people don’t tell a whole story but just ask the question “is the glass half empty or half full?“.

In simplified psychology the half full person is an optimist, the half empty person a pessimist.

In reality it’s not that simple. Read about positive psychology ideally before judging that quickly.

I do not bore you here for no reason, I want to offer you a full bottle and explain what it has to do with social media.


Mingling with Strangers

Let us return to the bar setting. The scene – two men sitting at the bar and drinking – encourages already a somewhat pessimistic interpretation.

You imagine them a little drunk and melancholic at best. Now imagine a bar full of people instead.

These young happy people are from all over the world. They have different

  • apparel
  • interests
  • beliefs

We’re clearly not in a bar in Texas where you get weird looks for not wearing a hat. We’re more probably somewhere San Francisco.

Believe it or not, for a long time I was more the “half empty glass” kind of person.

One way to overcome this shortcoming is this blog and my overall sharing, engagement and outreach when it comes to the virtual inhabitants of social media.

In a real bar setting in San Francisco we probably would encounter a group somewhere, not just men but also women, not at the bar but sitting at a table or on couches.

Now this group, chatting, smiling and laughing gets their drinks served. They’re all half empty or full depending on your choice.

Do you expect these people to analyze the drinks in order to find out whether they got served the correct quantity of liquid?

I imagine them getting some alcoholic mix drink like White Russian (Vodka with cream) e.g. or some other trendy cocktail. Depending on the bar they serve more or less of vodka and cream.


At the Bar

Although I rarely visit bars and I’m not a big drinker I have drank plenty of White Russians in the past.

The funny thing about them is that no White Russian tastes the same although they consist mostly of those two ingredients mentioned above.

Even the kind of glass varies greatly, from all kinds of cocktail glasses to average glasses you could drink orange juice or tea from. The looks most likely something like this:

  • it’s crowded
  • the music is loud
  • the girls are beautiful
  • and the guys tell stories about their great adventures or achievements


A lovely scene indeed. To my religious Muslim readers from Iran and elsewhere: Just imagine the evenings during Ramadan where everybody meets in the streets to finally eat and drink something after sunset.

Now do you think the girls and guys will do more than just say something funny about the bar running out of drinks?

Will they interrupt their conversation to muse about the drink or will they in fact say “chias” and toast? They will drink and laugh and be happy.

Why? It’s because they are there together sharing. When you’re sharing with lots of friendly like-minded people you do not notice small annoyances.

In fact in Polish the terms for sharing and being happy have the same origin.

While I’m not a particularly religious person I’m still very impressed by some things Jesus did and said. In one case, metaphorically he did foresee the digital age.

When the people of Israel were hungry in the desert he took 5 loaves of bread and two fish and fed thousands of people with it.


The More You Share the More You Multiply

A crowd a night club goes wild worshiping Jesus together. They share a common emotion.

In the digital or Internet age the more we share the more we have. We multiply by sharing. Jesus would love the Internet, he particularly would love social media.

Now let’s return to the bar again: Lets assume the group I described above gets a little agitated. In fact they notice that glasses are half empty/full and they want them completely full.

One of them could for instance stand up, go the bar and ask for another bottle to pour in more vodka into the drinks.

In the worst case all vodka is gone, sold out. Now s/he could just let the bartender offer an alternative and so on and so forth.

The person who went to the bar could come back and offer even a better drink this time, even something they didn’t know before.

Social media brings you a full bottle daily. Your glass might be even half empty but the moment you start sharing with others you get more and more to drink.

Also, as explained above Jesus probably loves social media. I bet there are some Christian social sites out there. Otherwise build one now!

I don’t have to teach my Indian readers how to share, their whole culture is based on sharing.

In Islam you also have to share, even with complete strangers if they ask you to. We Westerners have the biggest problem with sharing, we’re used to egoism.

On social media it does not make sense at all. While sharing we do not lose anything, we multiply each time we share. Everybody can be Jesus on the Internet!

You can at least behave like Jesus. Thus do not focus on your half empty or full glass, visit the bar, millions of potential friends wait there.


No Alcoholic Beverages Needed

Do you know what? Social media even works without alcohol! On the other hand, no social site can make up for a missed evening or night at the bar! Just combine both.

I do not only get clients via blogging and social media. People from overseas even call me up while in Berlin to go out for a drink. Then of course a half full glass is perfectly enough in most cases.

Btw. when it comes to Vodka do not buy some weird over-advertised ugly stuff. Buy the originals from Russia or Poland where I come from.

They taste completely different and muuuch better. Vodka Moskovskaya and Wodka Wyborowa are good choices.

Some Vodka brands use Russian names to sell more but they are not really from Russia. Look out for original vodka brands!

Ideally don’t drink at all or only on social occasions like weddings. Let the full bottle always remind you that you have it all.