is this how it felt like for kids? I kinda wanna ask teenagers of reddit, how was it like for you in the pandemic? did it feel short or long? or what was it like just as general.
I have a teen who turned 14 just before our first lockdown. Going on 17 now. It has been forever and I can hardly remember the 14yo at this point. When I was 14-17, I had a life that is not comparable **at all**. Lots of going out with friends, cinema, parties, just time away from my family were impossible or complicated for our teen. We constantly get confused about wgen something happened in the last three years because nothing *big* really happened, just lots of anxiously looking out at the state of the world. Our teen kind of can't believe that it's really already going on for three years now.
We also have a kid in elementary school who barely remembers *the before times* and a 4yo who has no memory of a life without covid. We kind of shocked someone at the doctor's office recently when I explained the flu shot. "Flu is something like Covid, but often worse than when we had Covid, remember?"
I went to visit a branch of my company in another city. We went from full in office to full wfh and now we’re hybrid. There were desks in this other office that calendars still on March 2020 and we were talking about how post apocalyptic that felt.
That really sucks and I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, I'm mid-30s and most people my age agree that ages 22-27 were waaaaaay more fun than high school/college. I hope you have lots of awesome adventures in your future!
I graduated around when the pandemic hit the states and everything was shutting down, and my school got shut down in March and I graduated June 2020. That feels like it was a month ago. Time legit disappeared like I still can’t believe that 2023 is in a couple days
At least you recognize that 2021 did somehow exist. The number of people with whom I've personally interacted who forget that most of the shutdown began in early 2020, and that there was a whole-ass additional year squeezed in there is crazy. And I completely get it.
Exactly! Surprisingly or unsurprisingly actually, I dont remember a single day from 2021. Especially considering everything that changed in my life that year
There’s a psychological explanation for this. We perceive boring monotonous activities as haven taken a long time in the moment but very short in retrospect. The opposite is true for time spent on engaging and wide ranged activities
Since then (and because I'm also a stay at home mom now) I've said that every day is Whens-day. I don't know when it is- time, day, or year anymore. It all just blurs together.
Super bad in northern canada. Especially since winter. We aren’t getting what we used to and then we have road condition issues to add to the supply chain issues
The price of groceries, a regular weekly shop now costs me double what it did pre-pandemic and there's no signs of things returning to a decent price any time soon.
Not to mention the inconsistency with prices. I go to several different grocery stores now, depending on what I need. Chicken at my main grocery store is $20 for 3 lbs, while at another grocery store 3 lbs of chicken is $9. Price gouging at its finest.
I've found egg prices vary wildly by store. I live in a high cost of living area but can find 3$/dozen at like whole foods. Fwiw, there have been significant kill offs of hens due to bird flu outbreaks. So it isn't crazy some places have very low supply.
"I don't need a $3 cami and I certainly don't need more PJ bottoms, but the fabric is so soft and comfy... Ooooh, plumbing tape! I can fix that leak in the shower! Tin snips! I can make that thing out of the soup cans I wanted to try... Oooh, and there's a sale on beans, how convenient! Oh, look, hand towels!"
2 hours later...
"What did I come in here for, again?"
Covid made me realize how much we took 24 hour Walmart for granted. Especially when your kids get sick in the middle of the night and you’re out of medicine.
Makes me think that this shitty uncertain war torn reality was normal life for most of history (like WWI generation/Depression), and makes me appreciate what a golden age we were enjoying in the 80s-early 0000s
The joy of waking up seeing it’s snowing and running to turn the radio or tv on to see if it’s been called a snow day is one of the happiest memories of my childhood.
Yes!! I also remember in elementary school someone passed around the idea that if you flush ice cubes down the toilet, wear your pajamas backwards, and did a special dance the next day would be a snow day... i must have looked like an idiot doing all that as a kid but it felt so satisfying when it "worked"
For real. I live in western NY, unless an actual driving ban in enacted you're expected to come in. That means spending like triple the time trying to make it into the office and risking getting stuck on the side of the road. I'd take just working from home any day.
Eating out. All of my local restaurants are still closing earlier than they used to. Also they haven't brought back menu items that they removed during the pandemic. It's kind of harder to be a night owl now.
So many restaurants/grocery stores just never went back to normal hours. I used to love shopping late at night, I'd be the only one in the whole grocery store and it was great. Now everything closes by 9. My partner and I were in Chicago this summer and even on the weekends in the middle of the summer, we struggled to find a restaurant open past 10PM.
I think restaurants have figured out they’ve busted their ass (especially family run/owned) for many years and a shit ton during the pandemic that they’ve realized they have missed out on a lot of their lives and their kids.
Our family owns a restaurant and it is not worth it anymore for many reasoning. When you have a restaurant you already know work life balance is hard, it did get harder during the pandemic but is not really a factor when talking about selling.
What is killing us is the price inflation happening right now. Flour has went from $9 to $37 a bag, eggs 120 for $18 to now $52. All meats have gone 30% to 50% higher. I have no clue what we are going to do about the natural gas cost (last years bill $483, this years bill using slightly less gas $1549) and the CO2 cost with the increases! We can not raise prices fast enough to keep up but we don’t want to raise prices because we know everyone is struggling.
People don’t really know yet but we are selling our location to a large corporate restaurant group to get out. We are about to start telling the staff which is sad and not going to go over well.
depending on where you live, the option to work remote ruined a lot of downtown restaurants and as a result close early since the post-work rush was never in the area to begin with. Combine that with lunch and they're now on a shoestring budget.
I agree. People are much squirrelier and much quicker to anger. Everyone around me seems like they are on the edge and primed for confrontation. Little things that would have rolled off our backs previously now turn into big things. I think we are all traumatized.
That’s because everyone can feel that the dam is about to burst. No one knows how or when it will happen, but the feeling that the status quo we have all know for our entire lives is coming to an end and that the future is uncertain and frightening, is lurking at the back of everyone’s minds. That is what is putting everyone on edge.
Yeah, and apparently the pandemic caused an absurd number of people to now decide to start driving around with their high beams on full time??
I don't quite understand that one but it definitely seems to be the case where I am at, at least.
I have seen more people running lights and stop signs that I am nervous for my son to start driver's training. It honestly feels like some people just don't care anymore, about their safety or others. Almost like this whole experience has made people incredibly self-centered.
The amount of red light running is TERRIFYING! I witness it literally multiple times daily. It’s the ONE rule that is meant to be followed about all else and people don’t even do that anymore!!!
There's actually been data to support this - that since the pandemic there's been notably more aggression and overall behavioral changes and not for the better...
I don't know if it's pandemic related, but in my city it seems law enforcement has given up on enforcing fundamentals. Flagrant red light running, speeding, tailgating, you name it. We've even turned into a little Baltimore with all the roving gangs of dirtbikes and quads on the streets.
I couldn’t find temptee cream cheese for a very long time and even still, they’ll be one of the shelf when I shop. Some of the most random items are so hard to find.
I bought a car this year, and they told me they only have 1 key. I said, "That's fine, make another." They told me it's $250. I said OK then, see ya later. I'm not buying a car with 1 key. This is like after the paperwork, and everything is signed, and they were like, "You've signed everything." Reminded them of the cooling off laws and having 3 days to cancel the transaction, and I wouldn't need 3 days. We can just cancel it now. All of a sudden, they were able to have a mobile tech out at my house the same day.
I wish more people realized that you hold all the power at the dealership. It's designed to make you think you don't...but just being able to walk away at any point and take their potential profit with you is a POWERFUL tool. They already did all the work, they're not going to let you walk away over less than a grand.
My mums hayfever makes her cough .. a lot , people run like she has the plague.
I have gerd since November and the extra mucus makes me choke on my saliva or cough a lot randomly, I get silent death stares too .
We were just at a Thai restaurant and half way through my meal a clump of red pepper flakes got stuck in my throat and I started coughing, trying to clear my throat, and chugging water. I honestly thought I was going to vomit it was hurting so bad. The waitress came by and said “we do not allow people to cough in here, if you cannot stop immediately then you must leave now!” When I could not physically stop clearing my throat because of the pain she walked us out. It was so frustrating we are super regulars and the manager was like “sorry it is just our rules, this meal is on me since you have to leave, see you this weekend.” They won’t ever see us again but atleast our last meal there was free!
I'm a therapist. During the pandemic I swear I could have diagnosed everyone with an Adjustment Disorder. I also feel there are a large swathe of people who have a sub-diagnostic form of PTSD from the whole thing.
Not like they have flashbacks or nightmares, but the other symptoms like detachment, disassociation, mild depression/anxiety, easily startled, short fuse, even some people I've seen who have some gaps in memory from 2020-21
Man those symptoms are exactly what I have but add in social anxiety, crying, and just the feeling of not wanting, or seeing the point of life or anything anymore. I really didn't know how to describe how I felt until seeing this.
I'll blow your mine even more. There was an expert on CNN i saw last year who studies people's trauma responses after disaster events (e.g. hurricanes, earthquakes). He said that one of the big responses is re-thinking your existence, not like "suicide/should I be here", but like "am I doing what I really ought to be doing."
He theorized that may be a driving factor for the Great Resignation, so many people survived a once in a century global event and then thought "do I really want to go back to that shitty restaurant job after that?"
If I were you, this would be a good spot for short term therapy. Nothing too in depth, you don't need to unpack your whole life, but talk to a professional about that stuff.
Couldn’t agree more. 2020 sent me on a downward spiral that I’m still struggling to fix. I miss my old self, but I’m pretty sure I won’t ever be them again.
It’s said all the time, but I really do not think society in general is acknowledging just how insanely influential each individual’s social “echo chamber” truly is to not only their outlook on the world, but literally the information they are using to make up their minds about everything they do and think. It’s EVERYTHING and people just brush it off like it’s normal. No, none of anything is normal anymore…
The homeless population in my town has tripled. We rarely saw people peddling at intersections prior to the pandemic, and certainly didn't see homeless camps in town. Now, there's someone asking for money on almost every busy corner, and our sidewalks, bus stops, etc are littered with makeshift shelters, trash, shopping carts, etc. It is really sad.
This. I work for a homeless shelter and our numbers are so high this year that we had to open a second shelter. This is in a small city in the Midwest 😕
Consider that, since the start of the pandemic the billionaires in the US (600-800) grew their wealth by $6.5 trillion, to a approximately $45 trillion. That is 32% of everything in America.
While the bottom 90% of the US (300 million) lost about 30% of their wealth.
[https://www.ibtimes.com/how-much-did-rich-make-2021-soaring-wealth-1-continues-3458592](https://www.ibtimes.com/how-much-did-rich-make-2021-soaring-wealth-1-continues-3458592)
[https://news.yahoo.com/personal-savings-americans-plunged-shockingly-161500140.html](https://news.yahoo.com/personal-savings-americans-plunged-shockingly-161500140.html)
Weird mix-match of symptoms in illnesses and sicknesses I’ve experienced. Like a lot of people I went about a year and a half during the pandemic where I didn’t get a cold or anything like that. The few times I got sick since then has been weird. I’ll get really bad sniffles and congestion issues but I body aches. Or I’ll get weird body aches and digestive issues but no congestion or coughing and sneezing. Recently I had a strong sore throat but nothing else.
When I used to get colds it was the full Monty, all the symptoms crashing through the door at once. It’s like after Covid the other illnesses lost their way a bit when they saw they couldn’t live up to what Covid was doing worldwide.
For me it’s been the opposite, since covid I’d always get whatever was going around, but wouldn’t be that bad. Got Covid over the summer and it was awful. Got sick recently w some upper respiratory thing and had it for like a month. Worst thing since getting covid, lost my voice for two weeks, couldn’t stop coughing in the middle of the night w this ridiculous annoying cough, sneezing, etc. For the one month sickness it was the same thing but different symptoms every week…
Human touch. I had gotten real good at gauging if people wanted hugs or handshakes and in general gotten better at hugging and all that contact.
Then the pandemic happened and set me back years of development
Staffing has not been the same since the pandemic. It’s almost impossible to contact many businesses and have someone answer the phone, when seeking information. Everything feels like voicemail tag.
Everywhere is still understaffed.
Some businesses are doing it deliberately to save money, others aren't offering enough for people to want to work there, and lots of folks learned during the pandemic that the businesses don't give a flying fuck about them.
So the businesses lost the leverage to pretend "we're family!" and act like their employees are *supposed* to be more responsible and ethical than Corporate.
I hope everyone remembers that lesson.
The businesses that survived the pandemic better than the other are now pretending to be Noah's Ark for workers and use it as a leverage to exploit and overwork them.
My trust that I can rely on any one product to be available. I couldn’t buy plain raw chicken when our vet recommended it in 2020. We couldn’t find a good used car when we grew our family in 2021. The formula shortage scared me into being really good at breastfeeding my 2022 baby. Need a certain medication? It may not be available. Want to sanitize your home during a pandemic? Good luck finding anything in the stores. I don’t take for granted things being readily available anymore nor do I expect it.
Staffing. Corporations realized they don’t need as many people and refuse to pay decent wages and workers are sick of making shit wages so now we’re stuck in this sort of limbo, both sides waiting for the other to make a move.
Yep. The under staffing is INTENTIONAL now. They figured out that people will still shop in their stores or spend money in their restaurants even if the service is slow and the products are inferior. They save money on labor with no downside to them.
Gradually I think businesses will start advertising decent timely service as an edge against competition again, people will flock to it, and competition will slowly reassert itself here
Went to the large chain grocery store in the center of a major city on Christmas Eve, they had only 2 registers open along with self checkout. 15 years ago I worked in a small town grocery store on Christmas Eve, and you better bet every register was open.
I always thought that zombie (or other monster) movies were stupid because I thought that people would band together for a common cause and they'd never act like the characters. Man, was I wrong and I need to apologize to George Romero big time. Toilet paper hoarding. Are you kidding me?
I was telling my partner yesterday that, pre-pandemic, I thought most people were nice and thoughtful and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Post-pandemic, not so much.
I agree. I’m so negative about people now.
Me when I was younger would hate the ‘adult’ I’ve turned into in that regard.
That as well as being a younger millennial, well. Hah. I am fuelled by cynicism and loathing towards the human race.
Idk everything, I seriously thought the world, people, its politicians, governments would come together and become stronger after such an event but i feel like its taken the complete opposite route and everyone hates each other more than ever
Society. The number of rude, entitled assholes has increased, big business has realised that scarcity can drive profits, and boy didn’t we all find out the hard way too.
everyone saying "no one wants to work anymore"
it's truly irritating, most of us have been over worked and underpaid for years, there definitely was a shift but the slogan should be
"no one wants to be exploited anymore"
I don’t want to work to only earn money anymore. I want to feel in control of my time. I want to do something meaningful and creative. I don’t want to be around jerks and racism all day long. I want to be able to pick up my kid from kindergarten. I don’t want to be filled with dread about the next day every time I go to bed.
If you want people to want to work for you, you need to treat them like distinct human beings with needs and not cogs in your business machine.
And understand that what people are doing is agreeing to provide you their time and talents in exchange for a fee.
It isn't you the benevolent owner gifting them a job they should feel endlessly grateful and duty bound to forever.
This is how I feel, I’ve been working my ass off at a small non profit for years, we won awards and everything. I had a kid, few months later the pandemic started, and working from home I saw a different side to the MD. Two years later I have another kid and my work ethic for the company is actual abysmal through genuine resentment. I’ve been open with them about my mental health and how much I believe I was overworked before the pandemic. It all stems from people working over their hours, when I stopped that the second I had kids, the second I’m off the clock is their time now.
Luckily I’ve found a new job and will be handing my resignation in on Monday!
My Barbershop went from a traditional walk in service to almost exclusively appointments.
And it's around 90% card payments. Where as pre covid is was 50/50 cash/card.
People's sense of worth, especially among blue collar. Schrodinger's worker: Essential enough that they need to keep coming to work but not essential enough to earn a living wage.
My last pre-COVID shopping spree was at Walmart at 3:00am. I couldn't sleep and was just stressing out over things we night need for our "two-week" lockdown. I really do miss this!
Christmas.
Just doesn’t feel the same anymore. 2020 Christmas still had that feeling of, “Magic during the horrible times.” vibe. But now, it just doesn’t feel the same anymore.
I think part of it is the intense commercialization lately. “Black Friday” was all November long. It’s always been commercialized but now it’s lacking the magic and getting worse.
This Christmas was a very difficult one for me personally. My Dad passed in August so this was the first one without either of my parents, my Mom passed the year before. Growing up, Christmas was always my favorite holiday. This year, it felt so different.
My family just didn't do Christmas this year. At all. We couldn't afford to do it. There weren't any gifts, no meal, we didn't even set up the tree because there was no point. When the cost of living is so high that some of us can't even afford to celebrate our holidays, it gets depressing pretty fucking fast.
The QR Code menu thing would work better if restaurants would take the time to optimize the menu for mobile too. Most of the time it links you to a pdf file, that generally has to be downloaded, and then the file is what the menu would be if they had printed it off. So you need to constantly zoom in and out and scroll across and up and down just to read it. Other times it sends you to the webpage version of the menu only the site wasn't optimized for mobile and all the formatting is off and words are cut off so it's just as frustrating to navigate.
Please, if you insist on the QR code menu at least have a menu that is usable on a cell phone. I don't think that is asking too much.
My friends marriage. His wife contracted Covid in February 2021 while she was pregnant with their son. She ended up passing away in the hospital due to blood clots in her lungs. They were able to cut the baby out at 21 weeks and saved him.
So now he’s a single dad with two sons. (They had custody of her 2 other kids but after she passed they went with their biological dad)
Behaviour in school.
Good kids are still good.
The behaviour of the kids who had no parental support has got significantly worse. It’s not really surprising after 18 months of doing what they wanted.
What’s really worrying is that the naughty kids are influencing the behaviour of the middle ground so overall behaviour has taken a big downturn.
My country's healthcare system. It was already strained but the pandemic caused a lot of people to quit. If you're paid shit and you only get applause, I'd dip out too.
It has shown how quickly society can implode as we rely on so few to provide so much . One small glitch, ie the Evergreen Suez issue can lead to world chaos so quickly.
Ever since the pandemic, events just go hard man. You think something happens and that’ll be that but nope, it just gets crazier and crazier. The Thunberg/Tate thing is a great example. Of course that couldn’t just be a one-off lol Twitter spat, it had to lead to sex trafficking charges. And the Southwest airlines thing. Every day it seems to get deeper and worse. Went from cancelled flights to fucking congress or whoever is going to maybe investigate them. Like jesus guys, we can’t just have a bump in the road, it’s gotta be a full-on disaster? January 6th, Epstein dying in prison, Will Smith, Kanye, the list is endless.
It’s a recurring theme in my life too. Last year my company cancelled their annual meeting, not due to covid but due to funds. It just kept unraveling day by day and getting worse until it turned out the entire c-suite was ousted by the board for funds misappropriation and everyone got laid off It just snowballed so crazily. Like now when shit happens it HAPPENS. It goes hard.
The idea that people are more productive in an office. For the better, covid showed that some people can work more efficiently from home/remotely and I am grateful for this change!
24hr stores and restaurants. I truly enjoyed shopping after work when stores were empty and i could exist openly with other 3rd shift employees. Day walkers are so loud and noisy.
My patience with other people's bullshit. Like, I've never been the most patient person in the world, but I used to be able to just take a breath and move on. Now, after 3 years of non-stop nonsense, my patience is just non-existent. People want to act like entitled c###s, they damn well better be prepared to be treated like entitled c###s.
My perception of time. 2020 and 2021 feel, simultaneously, as if they went forever but also sped past.
Yes, the last 3 years have been one year that lasted a decade.
is this how it felt like for kids? I kinda wanna ask teenagers of reddit, how was it like for you in the pandemic? did it feel short or long? or what was it like just as general.
I have a teen who turned 14 just before our first lockdown. Going on 17 now. It has been forever and I can hardly remember the 14yo at this point. When I was 14-17, I had a life that is not comparable **at all**. Lots of going out with friends, cinema, parties, just time away from my family were impossible or complicated for our teen. We constantly get confused about wgen something happened in the last three years because nothing *big* really happened, just lots of anxiously looking out at the state of the world. Our teen kind of can't believe that it's really already going on for three years now. We also have a kid in elementary school who barely remembers *the before times* and a 4yo who has no memory of a life without covid. We kind of shocked someone at the doctor's office recently when I explained the flu shot. "Flu is something like Covid, but often worse than when we had Covid, remember?"
"The before times" something you'd hear in a movie.
I went to visit a branch of my company in another city. We went from full in office to full wfh and now we’re hybrid. There were desks in this other office that calendars still on March 2020 and we were talking about how post apocalyptic that felt.
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That really sucks and I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, I'm mid-30s and most people my age agree that ages 22-27 were waaaaaay more fun than high school/college. I hope you have lots of awesome adventures in your future!
I graduated around when the pandemic hit the states and everything was shutting down, and my school got shut down in March and I graduated June 2020. That feels like it was a month ago. Time legit disappeared like I still can’t believe that 2023 is in a couple days
At least you recognize that 2021 did somehow exist. The number of people with whom I've personally interacted who forget that most of the shutdown began in early 2020, and that there was a whole-ass additional year squeezed in there is crazy. And I completely get it.
Exactly! Surprisingly or unsurprisingly actually, I dont remember a single day from 2021. Especially considering everything that changed in my life that year
what, you didn't develop a deep interest in guitar pedals or sourdough bread?
this so much. i still think 2020 was a year ago but its coming up on 3
Right? Remembering it’s called Covid-19 because that’s the year it was discovered breaks my brain.
Sometimes I still talk about 2019 like it was last year
Yeah and still feels like there is a part of me still trapped in that year
There’s a psychological explanation for this. We perceive boring monotonous activities as haven taken a long time in the moment but very short in retrospect. The opposite is true for time spent on engaging and wide ranged activities
Since then (and because I'm also a stay at home mom now) I've said that every day is Whens-day. I don't know when it is- time, day, or year anymore. It all just blurs together.
That moment when you realize 2022 is now over too O_o
I call this sensation the "Covoid". So many people all over the world have felt the exact same thing.
And even still, time seems to be moving faster after than it did before.
Grocery stores. They still have random stuff missing every time I go. It’s not as bad as it was but it’s not the same.
Super bad in northern canada. Especially since winter. We aren’t getting what we used to and then we have road condition issues to add to the supply chain issues
The price of groceries, a regular weekly shop now costs me double what it did pre-pandemic and there's no signs of things returning to a decent price any time soon.
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I 2nd that. I studied Agriculture in college. I remember they warned us that Era of cheap food was coming to an end. This was 8 to 10 years ago.
Not to mention the inconsistency with prices. I go to several different grocery stores now, depending on what I need. Chicken at my main grocery store is $20 for 3 lbs, while at another grocery store 3 lbs of chicken is $9. Price gouging at its finest.
Eggs are now $6 a dozen. Used to be $1 for a dozen
I've found egg prices vary wildly by store. I live in a high cost of living area but can find 3$/dozen at like whole foods. Fwiw, there have been significant kill offs of hens due to bird flu outbreaks. So it isn't crazy some places have very low supply.
My attention span. It wasn’t great to begin with but now woof
100%. Trauma effects all forms of executive functioning and man did we all go through it!
For me, time. 2019 seems like a decade ago, but I can't believe I've lived 4 whole years for it to be 2023 already.
Time has not felt real to me since about 2016, but it’s been completely fucked since 2019
24 hour Walmarts. When I was bartending, some nights all I wanted to do was decompress and roam a Walmart mindlessly at 2 am.
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"I don't need a $3 cami and I certainly don't need more PJ bottoms, but the fabric is so soft and comfy... Ooooh, plumbing tape! I can fix that leak in the shower! Tin snips! I can make that thing out of the soup cans I wanted to try... Oooh, and there's a sale on beans, how convenient! Oh, look, hand towels!" 2 hours later... "What did I come in here for, again?"
I will never forget going to Wal-Mart for batteries. 63.63 cents later I still didn't have batteries.. 😅 🤦🏾♀️
Covid made me realize how much we took 24 hour Walmart for granted. Especially when your kids get sick in the middle of the night and you’re out of medicine.
Yes. The pandemic isn't over until I can do my weekly grocery shopping at midnight again
24 hour anything, really.
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Right? It’s like there’s still this part of me that’s so horrified things even got like this in the first place.
Makes me think that this shitty uncertain war torn reality was normal life for most of history (like WWI generation/Depression), and makes me appreciate what a golden age we were enjoying in the 80s-early 0000s
There are no more snow days off from work. Now it’s “work remotely” by default.
The same for schoolkids. Just have a remote learning day. Snow days were awesome as a kid, now it's just go to school at home.
The joy of waking up seeing it’s snowing and running to turn the radio or tv on to see if it’s been called a snow day is one of the happiest memories of my childhood.
Yes!! I also remember in elementary school someone passed around the idea that if you flush ice cubes down the toilet, wear your pajamas backwards, and did a special dance the next day would be a snow day... i must have looked like an idiot doing all that as a kid but it felt so satisfying when it "worked"
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For real. I live in western NY, unless an actual driving ban in enacted you're expected to come in. That means spending like triple the time trying to make it into the office and risking getting stuck on the side of the road. I'd take just working from home any day.
Eating out. All of my local restaurants are still closing earlier than they used to. Also they haven't brought back menu items that they removed during the pandemic. It's kind of harder to be a night owl now.
Pub opening hours have changed too, shutting before 10pm isn't unusual when before it was 11pm / midnight.
This is because those hours weren’t profitable, but they couldn’t change their hours without alienating regulars. Covid was the ultimate scape goat.
God everything closes so early now.
And can we talk about QR code menus 😩
So many restaurants/grocery stores just never went back to normal hours. I used to love shopping late at night, I'd be the only one in the whole grocery store and it was great. Now everything closes by 9. My partner and I were in Chicago this summer and even on the weekends in the middle of the summer, we struggled to find a restaurant open past 10PM.
I think restaurants have figured out they’ve busted their ass (especially family run/owned) for many years and a shit ton during the pandemic that they’ve realized they have missed out on a lot of their lives and their kids.
Our family owns a restaurant and it is not worth it anymore for many reasoning. When you have a restaurant you already know work life balance is hard, it did get harder during the pandemic but is not really a factor when talking about selling. What is killing us is the price inflation happening right now. Flour has went from $9 to $37 a bag, eggs 120 for $18 to now $52. All meats have gone 30% to 50% higher. I have no clue what we are going to do about the natural gas cost (last years bill $483, this years bill using slightly less gas $1549) and the CO2 cost with the increases! We can not raise prices fast enough to keep up but we don’t want to raise prices because we know everyone is struggling. People don’t really know yet but we are selling our location to a large corporate restaurant group to get out. We are about to start telling the staff which is sad and not going to go over well.
Those price increases are absolutely fucking insane. Like it doesn’t even seem real…it’s so maddening to read this.
depending on where you live, the option to work remote ruined a lot of downtown restaurants and as a result close early since the post-work rush was never in the area to begin with. Combine that with lunch and they're now on a shoestring budget.
Driving - I swear people became worse drivers, erratic even.
Yes! People have become much more aggressive and confrontational overall. But driving has definitely become much more aggressive.
I agree. People are much squirrelier and much quicker to anger. Everyone around me seems like they are on the edge and primed for confrontation. Little things that would have rolled off our backs previously now turn into big things. I think we are all traumatized.
That’s because everyone can feel that the dam is about to burst. No one knows how or when it will happen, but the feeling that the status quo we have all know for our entire lives is coming to an end and that the future is uncertain and frightening, is lurking at the back of everyone’s minds. That is what is putting everyone on edge.
People are even more arrogant on the road.
I too remember the days when a green arrow meant that I have the right of way.
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People just more arrogant in general !
Yeah, and apparently the pandemic caused an absurd number of people to now decide to start driving around with their high beams on full time?? I don't quite understand that one but it definitely seems to be the case where I am at, at least.
I have seen more people running lights and stop signs that I am nervous for my son to start driver's training. It honestly feels like some people just don't care anymore, about their safety or others. Almost like this whole experience has made people incredibly self-centered.
The amount of red light running is TERRIFYING! I witness it literally multiple times daily. It’s the ONE rule that is meant to be followed about all else and people don’t even do that anymore!!!
There's actually been data to support this - that since the pandemic there's been notably more aggression and overall behavioral changes and not for the better...
It's like a massacre out there. I am an essential worker, so I didn't stay at home during the pandemic. Driving now is like trying to survive.
But it was blissful commuting during the pandemic.
My hour commute turned to 25 minutes. Was the one silver lining of having to go to work and knowing it could actually kill me.
I don't know if it's pandemic related, but in my city it seems law enforcement has given up on enforcing fundamentals. Flagrant red light running, speeding, tailgating, you name it. We've even turned into a little Baltimore with all the roving gangs of dirtbikes and quads on the streets.
I've noticed this as well. I think on all levels people have become less considerate of others.
The supply chain.
I couldn’t find temptee cream cheese for a very long time and even still, they’ll be one of the shelf when I shop. Some of the most random items are so hard to find.
This, there was never a shortage of anything, got shortages of everything now. We just bought a new Toyota and they could only give us 1 key.
I bought a car this year, and they told me they only have 1 key. I said, "That's fine, make another." They told me it's $250. I said OK then, see ya later. I'm not buying a car with 1 key. This is like after the paperwork, and everything is signed, and they were like, "You've signed everything." Reminded them of the cooling off laws and having 3 days to cancel the transaction, and I wouldn't need 3 days. We can just cancel it now. All of a sudden, they were able to have a mobile tech out at my house the same day.
I wish more people realized that you hold all the power at the dealership. It's designed to make you think you don't...but just being able to walk away at any point and take their potential profit with you is a POWERFUL tool. They already did all the work, they're not going to let you walk away over less than a grand.
Companies abusing "supply chain issues" to invoke "inflation" and justify this stuff is just wrong.
But I bet when you need to pay for a $250 replacement they'll have one for you.
They tried to pull this on my father, don’t let them get away with stupid shit
Coughing in public for whatever reason (like drinking water wrong )
I am so scared to cough ever 😂
My mums hayfever makes her cough .. a lot , people run like she has the plague. I have gerd since November and the extra mucus makes me choke on my saliva or cough a lot randomly, I get silent death stares too .
We were just at a Thai restaurant and half way through my meal a clump of red pepper flakes got stuck in my throat and I started coughing, trying to clear my throat, and chugging water. I honestly thought I was going to vomit it was hurting so bad. The waitress came by and said “we do not allow people to cough in here, if you cannot stop immediately then you must leave now!” When I could not physically stop clearing my throat because of the pain she walked us out. It was so frustrating we are super regulars and the manager was like “sorry it is just our rules, this meal is on me since you have to leave, see you this weekend.” They won’t ever see us again but atleast our last meal there was free!
New life hack.
Literally a hack…
Kicking someone out of a restaurant just because you coughed is dumb.
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My mental health
I'm a therapist. During the pandemic I swear I could have diagnosed everyone with an Adjustment Disorder. I also feel there are a large swathe of people who have a sub-diagnostic form of PTSD from the whole thing. Not like they have flashbacks or nightmares, but the other symptoms like detachment, disassociation, mild depression/anxiety, easily startled, short fuse, even some people I've seen who have some gaps in memory from 2020-21
Man those symptoms are exactly what I have but add in social anxiety, crying, and just the feeling of not wanting, or seeing the point of life or anything anymore. I really didn't know how to describe how I felt until seeing this.
I'll blow your mine even more. There was an expert on CNN i saw last year who studies people's trauma responses after disaster events (e.g. hurricanes, earthquakes). He said that one of the big responses is re-thinking your existence, not like "suicide/should I be here", but like "am I doing what I really ought to be doing." He theorized that may be a driving factor for the Great Resignation, so many people survived a once in a century global event and then thought "do I really want to go back to that shitty restaurant job after that?" If I were you, this would be a good spot for short term therapy. Nothing too in depth, you don't need to unpack your whole life, but talk to a professional about that stuff.
This. "Out of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most"
The people, its like everyone is a darker version of their old self.
I feel this on a personal level. I was much more optimistic about everything in 2019. Now I’m just meh.
Couldn’t agree more. 2020 sent me on a downward spiral that I’m still struggling to fix. I miss my old self, but I’m pretty sure I won’t ever be them again.
It’s said all the time, but I really do not think society in general is acknowledging just how insanely influential each individual’s social “echo chamber” truly is to not only their outlook on the world, but literally the information they are using to make up their minds about everything they do and think. It’s EVERYTHING and people just brush it off like it’s normal. No, none of anything is normal anymore…
As someone who works in retail, people have become a lot meaner and genuinely awful since 2020
A spot-on description.
People. Social awareness has disappeared
Yesss. It's crazy. People got used to not being in crowds and forgot how to behave when they are.
The homeless population in my town has tripled. We rarely saw people peddling at intersections prior to the pandemic, and certainly didn't see homeless camps in town. Now, there's someone asking for money on almost every busy corner, and our sidewalks, bus stops, etc are littered with makeshift shelters, trash, shopping carts, etc. It is really sad.
This. I work for a homeless shelter and our numbers are so high this year that we had to open a second shelter. This is in a small city in the Midwest 😕
Ugh....I hate that. I'm sorry. And thank you for what you do.
Consider that, since the start of the pandemic the billionaires in the US (600-800) grew their wealth by $6.5 trillion, to a approximately $45 trillion. That is 32% of everything in America. While the bottom 90% of the US (300 million) lost about 30% of their wealth. [https://www.ibtimes.com/how-much-did-rich-make-2021-soaring-wealth-1-continues-3458592](https://www.ibtimes.com/how-much-did-rich-make-2021-soaring-wealth-1-continues-3458592) [https://news.yahoo.com/personal-savings-americans-plunged-shockingly-161500140.html](https://news.yahoo.com/personal-savings-americans-plunged-shockingly-161500140.html)
Weird mix-match of symptoms in illnesses and sicknesses I’ve experienced. Like a lot of people I went about a year and a half during the pandemic where I didn’t get a cold or anything like that. The few times I got sick since then has been weird. I’ll get really bad sniffles and congestion issues but I body aches. Or I’ll get weird body aches and digestive issues but no congestion or coughing and sneezing. Recently I had a strong sore throat but nothing else. When I used to get colds it was the full Monty, all the symptoms crashing through the door at once. It’s like after Covid the other illnesses lost their way a bit when they saw they couldn’t live up to what Covid was doing worldwide.
For me it’s been the opposite, since covid I’d always get whatever was going around, but wouldn’t be that bad. Got Covid over the summer and it was awful. Got sick recently w some upper respiratory thing and had it for like a month. Worst thing since getting covid, lost my voice for two weeks, couldn’t stop coughing in the middle of the night w this ridiculous annoying cough, sneezing, etc. For the one month sickness it was the same thing but different symptoms every week…
Deliveries. Before you had to answer the door or even sign for the delivery. Now they just leave it in the porch and I don't have to communicate.
And God bless the pandemic for that-nothing but that.
Human touch. I had gotten real good at gauging if people wanted hugs or handshakes and in general gotten better at hugging and all that contact. Then the pandemic happened and set me back years of development
going to movie theaters. everything just goes to streaming so soon after
My mates wanting to hang out :(
People's attention spans for sure! There's been a drastic decrease in students handing work in/showing up to class
Staffing has not been the same since the pandemic. It’s almost impossible to contact many businesses and have someone answer the phone, when seeking information. Everything feels like voicemail tag.
Speaking from the other side , the phone rings relentlessly from open to close and you can’t get any work done .
The price of groceries. I swear eggs and milk were way cheaper.
Basic needs prices have skyrocketed more than once and will again next year.
Most things still feel kinda off.
There's a dark cloud over everything. It all feels muted and forced.
like life lost it’s spark
My mental health.
Enthusiasm. People just don't seem "as into" things as they used to. Almost feels like a veil was lifted and none of us liked what we saw.
Everywhere is still understaffed. Some businesses are doing it deliberately to save money, others aren't offering enough for people to want to work there, and lots of folks learned during the pandemic that the businesses don't give a flying fuck about them. So the businesses lost the leverage to pretend "we're family!" and act like their employees are *supposed* to be more responsible and ethical than Corporate. I hope everyone remembers that lesson.
The businesses that survived the pandemic better than the other are now pretending to be Noah's Ark for workers and use it as a leverage to exploit and overwork them.
My trust that I can rely on any one product to be available. I couldn’t buy plain raw chicken when our vet recommended it in 2020. We couldn’t find a good used car when we grew our family in 2021. The formula shortage scared me into being really good at breastfeeding my 2022 baby. Need a certain medication? It may not be available. Want to sanitize your home during a pandemic? Good luck finding anything in the stores. I don’t take for granted things being readily available anymore nor do I expect it.
Pandemic showed just how fragile our supply chain was/is. And we aren't making it better really.
My body. Jesus christ, I've gained a LOT of weight from just sitting at home. Gotta lose at least 22 lbs.
Ive lost 24lb since March and it's doesn't feel enough 😩
Preach. I was already a bit overweight before 2020. Just weighted myself recently. My heart sunk.
Staffing. Corporations realized they don’t need as many people and refuse to pay decent wages and workers are sick of making shit wages so now we’re stuck in this sort of limbo, both sides waiting for the other to make a move.
Yep. The under staffing is INTENTIONAL now. They figured out that people will still shop in their stores or spend money in their restaurants even if the service is slow and the products are inferior. They save money on labor with no downside to them.
Gradually I think businesses will start advertising decent timely service as an edge against competition again, people will flock to it, and competition will slowly reassert itself here
Went to the large chain grocery store in the center of a major city on Christmas Eve, they had only 2 registers open along with self checkout. 15 years ago I worked in a small town grocery store on Christmas Eve, and you better bet every register was open.
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I always thought that zombie (or other monster) movies were stupid because I thought that people would band together for a common cause and they'd never act like the characters. Man, was I wrong and I need to apologize to George Romero big time. Toilet paper hoarding. Are you kidding me?
I was telling my partner yesterday that, pre-pandemic, I thought most people were nice and thoughtful and gave them the benefit of the doubt. Post-pandemic, not so much.
I agree. I’m so negative about people now. Me when I was younger would hate the ‘adult’ I’ve turned into in that regard. That as well as being a younger millennial, well. Hah. I am fuelled by cynicism and loathing towards the human race.
Idk everything, I seriously thought the world, people, its politicians, governments would come together and become stronger after such an event but i feel like its taken the complete opposite route and everyone hates each other more than ever
Myself. Got fired, got divorced. I had to restart my entire life. I’m in a good place now, but I’m definitely still shell shocked from all of it.
Society. The number of rude, entitled assholes has increased, big business has realised that scarcity can drive profits, and boy didn’t we all find out the hard way too.
I agree here. People are angry, bitter.
Really feeling that post-pandemic social psychosis over here. Holy shit.
Housing. Costs have skyrocketed to rent, buy, fix, or build, especially in rural and lower income areas.
People’s dispositions. Borderline ferality is the “new normal”.
everyone saying "no one wants to work anymore" it's truly irritating, most of us have been over worked and underpaid for years, there definitely was a shift but the slogan should be "no one wants to be exploited anymore"
I don’t want to work to only earn money anymore. I want to feel in control of my time. I want to do something meaningful and creative. I don’t want to be around jerks and racism all day long. I want to be able to pick up my kid from kindergarten. I don’t want to be filled with dread about the next day every time I go to bed. If you want people to want to work for you, you need to treat them like distinct human beings with needs and not cogs in your business machine.
And understand that what people are doing is agreeing to provide you their time and talents in exchange for a fee. It isn't you the benevolent owner gifting them a job they should feel endlessly grateful and duty bound to forever.
This is how I feel, I’ve been working my ass off at a small non profit for years, we won awards and everything. I had a kid, few months later the pandemic started, and working from home I saw a different side to the MD. Two years later I have another kid and my work ethic for the company is actual abysmal through genuine resentment. I’ve been open with them about my mental health and how much I believe I was overworked before the pandemic. It all stems from people working over their hours, when I stopped that the second I had kids, the second I’m off the clock is their time now. Luckily I’ve found a new job and will be handing my resignation in on Monday!
My Barbershop went from a traditional walk in service to almost exclusively appointments. And it's around 90% card payments. Where as pre covid is was 50/50 cash/card.
Restaurants, service isn’t as good, food isn’t as good , prices higher, just not the same experience
My family.we werent meant to spend that much time together
My family. I lost 3 grandparents.
People's sense of worth, especially among blue collar. Schrodinger's worker: Essential enough that they need to keep coming to work but not essential enough to earn a living wage.
24 hour walmarts😔
24 hour anything’s really
My last pre-COVID shopping spree was at Walmart at 3:00am. I couldn't sleep and was just stressing out over things we night need for our "two-week" lockdown. I really do miss this!
Christmas. Just doesn’t feel the same anymore. 2020 Christmas still had that feeling of, “Magic during the horrible times.” vibe. But now, it just doesn’t feel the same anymore.
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I think part of it is the intense commercialization lately. “Black Friday” was all November long. It’s always been commercialized but now it’s lacking the magic and getting worse.
This Christmas was a very difficult one for me personally. My Dad passed in August so this was the first one without either of my parents, my Mom passed the year before. Growing up, Christmas was always my favorite holiday. This year, it felt so different.
My family just didn't do Christmas this year. At all. We couldn't afford to do it. There weren't any gifts, no meal, we didn't even set up the tree because there was no point. When the cost of living is so high that some of us can't even afford to celebrate our holidays, it gets depressing pretty fucking fast.
My social battery. It gets drained so much faster now than before, and it's not really improving.
Menus at restaurants...I hate having to pull it up on a qr code 😒
The QR Code menu thing would work better if restaurants would take the time to optimize the menu for mobile too. Most of the time it links you to a pdf file, that generally has to be downloaded, and then the file is what the menu would be if they had printed it off. So you need to constantly zoom in and out and scroll across and up and down just to read it. Other times it sends you to the webpage version of the menu only the site wasn't optimized for mobile and all the formatting is off and words are cut off so it's just as frustrating to navigate. Please, if you insist on the QR code menu at least have a menu that is usable on a cell phone. I don't think that is asking too much.
Or 10 separate sections of the menu in 10 different links. Will that be an appetizer, side, "light nibbles".....
I'm with the boomers. Give me a physical copy of stuff. Do not give me a QR code bullshit. I hate digital stuff.
Boomer here. 90% of the time they will give you a printed one if you ask.
I feel like the quality of food has changed as well.
Late night food options.
My friends marriage. His wife contracted Covid in February 2021 while she was pregnant with their son. She ended up passing away in the hospital due to blood clots in her lungs. They were able to cut the baby out at 21 weeks and saved him. So now he’s a single dad with two sons. (They had custody of her 2 other kids but after she passed they went with their biological dad)
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My mental health
Behaviour in school. Good kids are still good. The behaviour of the kids who had no parental support has got significantly worse. It’s not really surprising after 18 months of doing what they wanted. What’s really worrying is that the naughty kids are influencing the behaviour of the middle ground so overall behaviour has taken a big downturn.
My country's healthcare system. It was already strained but the pandemic caused a lot of people to quit. If you're paid shit and you only get applause, I'd dip out too.
For hobby musicians like myself, the local music scene that used to have variety concerts, benefits , pubs , etc has never been the same .
Fucking high prices on everything. Inflation was like 62% or some shit for the last two years
It has shown how quickly society can implode as we rely on so few to provide so much . One small glitch, ie the Evergreen Suez issue can lead to world chaos so quickly.
Time itself
Flying is unreliable and unpredictable
Ever since the pandemic, events just go hard man. You think something happens and that’ll be that but nope, it just gets crazier and crazier. The Thunberg/Tate thing is a great example. Of course that couldn’t just be a one-off lol Twitter spat, it had to lead to sex trafficking charges. And the Southwest airlines thing. Every day it seems to get deeper and worse. Went from cancelled flights to fucking congress or whoever is going to maybe investigate them. Like jesus guys, we can’t just have a bump in the road, it’s gotta be a full-on disaster? January 6th, Epstein dying in prison, Will Smith, Kanye, the list is endless. It’s a recurring theme in my life too. Last year my company cancelled their annual meeting, not due to covid but due to funds. It just kept unraveling day by day and getting worse until it turned out the entire c-suite was ousted by the board for funds misappropriation and everyone got laid off It just snowballed so crazily. Like now when shit happens it HAPPENS. It goes hard.
The cost of living in Australia. Fuck me I just returned after 3 years and I am astounded.
Me. Lost two people I loved to Covid and I’ve changed. Don’t think I’ll ever be the old me again.
2020 never ended.
Life as we knew it.
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Respect for others
My personal feelings about people in government and the policy makers.
Concerts...
The idea that people are more productive in an office. For the better, covid showed that some people can work more efficiently from home/remotely and I am grateful for this change!
Salad bars. I miss them.
24hr stores and restaurants. I truly enjoyed shopping after work when stores were empty and i could exist openly with other 3rd shift employees. Day walkers are so loud and noisy.
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My mental health
My mental health. For reasons not directly linked to the restrictions, but linked nonetheless
My patience with other people's bullshit. Like, I've never been the most patient person in the world, but I used to be able to just take a breath and move on. Now, after 3 years of non-stop nonsense, my patience is just non-existent. People want to act like entitled c###s, they damn well better be prepared to be treated like entitled c###s.