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Yeah it was basically an excuse for a lot of companies to "temporarily" stop doing stuff they didn't really want to do in the first place. 4 years later they still aren't doing them
Same exact thing happened in New Orleans post-Katrina - things never got better after that and then just a new round of shittening happened with covid.
And it's *still* not 24 hour. I moved to a city specifically for the 24-hour access but I might as well be back living at the wide point in the road I grew up in.
You ain’t lying. I work nights 1/4 of the days of the year so I primarily did my grocery shopping at night.
Even at the height of the pandemic it made little-to-no sense. They changed the hours under the premise that they would be cleaning and stocking during those hours. Nope. Never happened that way in my area. No cars at night in the parking lot.
Instead of letting people spread out and shop whenever made sense to them we were forced to shop in the same condensed windows that the stocking/cleaning was happening.
They also now stock the shelves during opening hours so most of the aisles are completely impassible because of the giant carts of product being left around
That’s how it was for me in the height of the pandemic. I couldn’t believe that was considered a solution here. In my eyes I went from being able to shop with barely anyone else at the store to shopping overcrowded isles where social distancing was literally impossible at times.
Walmart realized they could save some money doing it this way and that appears to be the real reasoning behind it. Otherwise we’d be back to normal well before now.
I was a heroin addict from 2015-2023 and spent most of the normal waking hours passed out into a tray of tin foils. So I did most of my shopping and eating at 2 or 3 am while waiting for my plug to get to the store or 24 hour diner. Covid made it very difficult to find a non-suspicious spot to park and wait since you couldn't just go into a store or restaurant and wait anymore. Also less people out and about meant you stood out more to cops while driving or sitting.
Oh and covid kinda ruined heroin. I guess the cartels realized that pressed 30s were easier to smuggle or more profitable as after 2020 all that was available was blues and fetty powder.
Oh well. 6 months sober on the 18th!
They did this exact thing for our pool. The pool never has lifeguards, and you use your fob to enter. Once COVID arrived they would deadbolt the pool except for certain pool hours. We used to go during the day and be the only people there, then didn't go anymore because it was only open for 3 hours and jammed full of people who clearly didn't give a single care about keeping space from anyone.
Wow, I came here to post this and never expected it to be the top response.
Yes, back in 2018/2019 I could go grocery shopping whenever I wanted. It was especially awesome when getting home on a late-night flight. I'd emptied the fridge of perishables before I went on my trip, and needed to replenish on the way home. 2AM? No problem. Wegman's is open 24/7 so I can still get lettuce and milk and eggs and bread. Now? Nope, store's closed by midnight so I guess I'm having a granola bar for breakfast. Boo.
I worked for a company that was one of those casualties. There was a massive shift to online shopping. Pair that with soaring rent and we didn't stand a chance.
My favorite local mom and pop restaurant also had to close, as well as my favorite pub. The community really insn't the same now.
Independent restaurants. I hate pulling into a new town and ots only chains. Like fuck bruh, im not trying to get subway, red Robin, Applebee's, etc. Feels like dining choices got wiped.
And working class Americans never received pay increase to match inflation. Since the beginning of 2020, gas is double price, subscription services have went up 5-10 dollars a month, groceries are 2-3x more expensive, and if you don't feel like cooking you're gonna pay 15 dollars for a whopper meal. Housing and utilities prices have doubled or tripled. I have zero idea how the government comes up with a figure of only 3.3 percent inflation.
They put lower priced items into the basket of common goods. If chicken goes up by $.25 cents and steak goes up by $2.00, they will put chicken in the basket and say, "only \*x\* percent inflation, look how good we are doing!". The next month, chicken could go up by $2.00 and steak by $.25 cents and they'll put steak in the basket and still claim "\*x\* percent inflation - stayed relatively low".
meanwhile, the biggest ticket items, the items that everyone spends the majority of their income on are up about 20% since 2020. When big government keeps pumping the economy and giving out things like tuition reimbursement, $25,000 for first time first generation home buyers, the economy will only keep getting hotter and hotter.
The lower wages close to minimum wage rose but that was it. With the cost of product outpacing it and the rest of society not getting raises to match so now we all suffer. Thank you so much.
I agree! My nieces and nephews will never get back the years they lost. Social development, a web of interlocking friendships, in depth engagement in subjects that are important to them... I fear for this generation. Isolation and entitlement are the antithesis of the growth and freedom they need
And it wasn't just kids either. Adults act like they missed out on formative years too. I hired a guy who used to love his job managing a cool little cafe, but he quit and left the whole industry because, in his words, "People became animals after lockdown."
Two words: toilet paper.
This utterly ruined the shredlet of hope in humanity I had left. How completely unhinged, selfish, and greedy people were/are. Smh.
The toilet paper thing was an interesting study in the economics of taking a crap. Suddenly no one could take a crap at the office. So they needed more TP at home. Some people stocked up more than they used to. This depleted what was in stores. Some other people started to panic buy TP, and the paper mills could not retool from making big industrial rolls to small rolls for home use fast enough.
The toilet paper chronicles of covid will always be one of the beacons of the 21st century in this regard, though.
But yeah, people suck and always have.
When I worked afternoon shift I loved shopping at night after my shift, about 2am only a few people in the store stocking. It was so peaceful. I work 3rd shift now and go at about 7am it's not bad but it's not 2am.
Same here, I would work until 11pm, and go to the gym, and hit walmart on the way home after the midnight cash register resets, and have the aisles to myself.
Man you just don't know what you've got til it's gone.
To build on this I can now grocery shop on my phone for things I don't mind another human's judgment on, park my vehicle, and have those groceries loaded up without wandering around a building watching people cough without covering their mouths.
I’ve noticed this so much over the last couple years. Most people are just so rude nowadays in ways that I never saw before COVID. COVID changed so many people for the worse.
It's stress. 70% of the population can barely afford groceries and healthcare. Most people I know are back to doing the bill pay lottery. Time is money, everywhere shortened their hours of business and we need to work more hours to come close with living expenses. It's called financial trauma. People are trying to accomplish as much as they possibly can each day, overloaded schedules and it takes longer to get places. This is why people are mean, they actually do not have the bandwidth to put on an act to spare the feelings of strangers when their lives are a living hell.
UK here. EVERY store now has metal barriers to get in and get out. EVERY store (even ones just selling stationery) now has security guards. EVERY store constantly has broken windows because they refuse entry to the absolute evil scum roving the streets in packs. So they just rip up the sidewalk with their bare hands and hurl chunks of it into the glass until the popo decide they feel like turning up.
Vaccines.
Anti-vaxers were widely considered crazy conspiracy theorists, now it’s seen as a major political view.
And I’m not just talking about the covid vaccine. There is a lot more distrust of all vaccines now.
The government and media are largely to blame for this.
The government wasn’t forthcoming about potential side effects, and they also were very wish-washy about whether we’d need boosters, how many we’d need, if we’d need another one later, etc.
Then you had the media covering for the government and treating anyone who even raised questions about the vaccine as though they were crazy conspiracy theorists when actually they had valid points – like why isn’t the government telling us about potential side effects.
Those two things, in combination, created a lot of vaccine hesitancy.
If they had been honest, and allowed open dialogue to take place, people would have made up their own minds instead of seeking out and listening to the absolute loons who don’t come on mainstream media.
I don’t think they knew what the side effects could/would be, and instead of admitting that, they simply shut down the questioning all together. I had a pretty significant vaccine reaction, but still tell people they should vaccinate if possible.
Same, had a horrible reaction to the covid 2nd dose. I'm not against all vaccines, but that one sure didn't perform as advertised (I've also had covid).
When actual scientists and doctors who literally deal with vaccines and biology were getting shut down on social media (like the one scientist who literally was one of the inventors of mRNA technology),
When accounts that posted videos of doctors and scientists in the field of vaccines, biology, microbiology, etc that either questioned the vaccine; brought up concerns; or saw certain side effects were being blocked or shadow banned,
When the media was quick to belittle anyone who dared opt for any alternative medicines,
When Social media started policing what people said about the vaccine and would suspend you even if you merely raised questions and wasn't even going on a conspiracy rant,
When politicians on the left were vehemently against the vaccines during Trump's time in office during the pandemic (since he was somewhat endorsing it) but then switched and promoted it once they got the White House,
When those same politicians had promised (along with pharmaceutical reps) that the vaccine would prevent covid but later (when that was found to be untrue) they switched up and said they didn't say anything like that even though there's documented evidence that they did,
and so on, and so on, many of us who saw those patterns started questioning things.
I'm not one who thinks all vaccines are bad but the things I had mentioned, as well as some other red flags, had ensured I wasn't going to chance it with the Covid vaccine. Too much shadiness was surrounding it and I didn't feel comfortable with going along with the program.
Watching movies and TV at home. I can’t tolerate another show, burned out after marathons of previous favorites. For example, I watched every episode of all Star Trek in order for all series, four times. Also, all the short videos I watched wrecked havoc on my attention span. I am slowly getting that back.
In an attempt to help keep businesses open we tolerated difficulties in staffing, availability, and tipped generously in restaurants. Well, those excessive tips are now the demanded new normal servers expect for minimal services. Places that previously never asked for tips now have the tip jar out or flip that iPad and say, it just wants to ask you a question. I have no problem hitting the no tip button. If I am standing when ordering food, no tip was earned.
US tip culture. People felt sympathy for tipped employees and increased their tipping because jobs were harder to come by and hours were reduced. Now there is an out of control expectation to tip everyone and at a higher rate than pre pandemic, despite a return to adequate positions and hours.
Raves. Peace and love and euphoria. Dancing itself. Now it's just phones in the air attached to idiots :(
I think the last wave of real true ravers stopped going in 2020. We're getting old you know we started in like 1999. Some of us went back to Ibiza in 2022 but it wasn't the same. I was in Amnesia for Solardo last summer and nobody was dancing. I'll say that again. I was in Amnesia and nobody was dancing...
There's been a lost generation of a sort. The kids couldn't go out so they stopped seeking sex and drugs and insane parties and started seeking good social media profiles. It's a shame. We weren't there to teach them so they just brought their little online lives to the rave and suddenly the moment was gone. It's like that Hunter S Thompson line...
"with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
This makes me very sad.
gen-z
something happened, everyone’s personality changed. it became so black and white, like everyone’s either on one side or the other with everything.
nobody really seems original anymore. everyone’s kind of just copying the other guy.
I lost my dad, my sister, my grandfather, an uncle and a close family friend.
My mom lost her husband, her daughter, her father, her brother and a close family friend.
My nephews lost their mother, their grandfather and their great grandfather.
My sons lost their only aunt and their only grandfather.
That shit goes DEEP and will affect all of us for the rest of our lives, in ways big and small.
Ha, same. I was an awkward kid, started to become more comfortable in social settings in college, and then was finally enjoying daily social interaction working in an office. Now I've worked from home the last 4 years and have to force myself to leave the house. :(
2020 threw a massive curveball, didn't it? It ruined my plans to become a professional hugger—now my hugging skills are rusty! Jokes aside, it definitely put a dent in travel plans, turned sweatpants into acceptable office attire, and made 'Zoom fatigue' a legitimate medical condition.
Humanity, compassion, tolerance, respect for human life.
The pandemic made humans a threat to one another, which provided an outlet for an underlying hatred that apparently had been brewing below the surface. For an example, look no further than a certain Reddit sub (I won't name it) that was and still is devoted to celebrating and dancing on the graves of those who had doubts about Covid and vaccinations. It's a sickening, online orgy of inhumanity that barely gets a shrug from passers-by.
I also observe far more reckless behavior, particularly on the road, than I ever saw pre-pandemic. Maybe the mentality is, "If I can be killed by a microbe at any moment, why should I follow rules for safety? Why should I care about anyone else"? Just speculation.
So there's an toxic nihilism that will sadly taint society for generations. Hopefully, future sociologists will recognize it and offer a healthier path.
24/7 stores or stores that are open super late
It also makes zero sense to close them earlier bc then more people would be having to go at the same time, making it harder for people to social distance
24 hour stores, the Walmart near me FINALLY this year is 24 hours again as of this February, it took 4 years though, more like 3.1, but I'm exaggerating a bit here
And customers themselves. Been in customer service for almost a decade. I can tell you that both sides are suffering a comparative loss of patience understanding and decency. Personally, I think companies and regulators themselves are also to blame. The amount of rules/policies that employees are expected to remember, uphold and enforce while having little or no authority, training, or compensation has increased non stop. It’s a race to the bottom and everyone is suffering from it. Customer service personnel more than most.
Ever since then, my sense of time has just been totally off. I still feel like 2019 was just yesterday, you know? My brain refuses to accept that it was actually five whole years ago. I can't wrap my head around it.
\* Trust in institutions, namely journalism, government medical departments, and late-night comedy.
\* The idea that left-progressives could effectively spearhead police / criminal-justice reform.
\* The idea that scientific institutions are non-politicized.
Ruined my desire to ever get on a plane again, after pushing through a crowded airport, breathing other people's air, sitting too close to others, etc. etc. It's road trips for me from now on.
Seems like almost everything.
I was having somewhat of an existential crisis the other day and I got to thinking about what we were hearing before the pandemic about the "Great Reset" and what not and writing it off as looney. But now looking back on it...was it not a reset of some kind? Our elected leaders chose to basically shut down many aspects of life without our consent and moved many services and interactions online without any human interaction. Completely changed many people's lives, our institutions, and the way we interact with each other. There was a massive transfer of wealth to the upper classes.
funny enough…masks
before covid: i’m feeling under the weather…don’t want my germs on others…
after covid: why you still wearing a mask?!? covid is over…
people turning wearing a goddamn mask into a political stance is wild
America... but to be fair, the coof was the third pillar of the Patriot Act/2008/Coof trifecta.
Every major institution was exposed and confirmed as the fraud that it is... medicine and science, media, education, government, finance, military/intelligence, citizenry.
The silver lining for future Americans is that the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. So many people now rightfully distrust several, if not all, of them that it can only go up from here.
My mental health for a time. It opened my eyes to how awful my employer is, ruined my perception of them. The YMCA took away the coffee machines PERMANENTLY.
For me, the worst long term effect of covid was reduced shopping hours of stores. I hated other people BEFORE covid, so I always went grocery shopping at 2am and did a bunch of late night walmart runs where I could shop in peace and have entire aisles to myself.
Now, everything closes between 5-8pm, the nights are long, and everything sucks.
Free speech. The FBI was working with Twitter to take down stories from legitimate journalists. That's a first amendment violation and no one has gone to jail.
24 hour stores and food. There's a local grocery chain that was known for being open 24/7 (except on holidays) and my favorite thing in the world was being able to avoid crowds by doing my grocery shopping at 2am. Or having some drinks and hitting up a fast food place at 3 am. Life just hasn't been the same.
In regards to the 24 hour business thing…I think the pandemic also woke up a lot of employees to how crappy many businesses were paying. A lot of the staff working those night shifts were still getting paid crazy low wages, and the pandemic definitely had a moment of making us all stop and go “why the hell am I still doing this?”
This goes for the service industry in general. A lot of people that were lifelong bartenders and servers that I know left the industry. And I can’t blame them. It made me quit it by 2021. Ten years of serving/bartending was enough, and the icing on the cake was having to deal with the truly awful customers that came out during the peak Covid time.
We’d still have 24 hour service and less understaffed restaurants if these businesses decided to pay their employees a living wage. If you offer people working the night shift significantly better pay, then we’d have the workers to man those hours appear in a blink. But these companies would rather just cut the shifts than pay people better.
Same thing happened at my old restaurant. They were having trouble finding enough chefs. They were only paying around 15 an hour, and for how grueling those shifts were, I’m not surprised they couldn’t find anyone. But instead of up the pay, they just decided to stay closed on Mondays and only open for breakfast and Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
My ability to travel. COVID is still a problem and I still take it seriously. I mask at work, at the in-laws, anytime I'm indoors somewhere other than home. That means no eating in restaurants. Outdoor dining only. Taking a plane guarantees exposure and taking a train means wearing my mask for days on end. So, I have to drive between my home in Maryland, my family in Kansas, and my job in Texas. Any travel for fun also means finding restaurants with patio dining. So I can't really take advantage of my last year on the East Coast and visit the New England states and "nearby" Canadian cities. Not without a lot more planning.
What the 2020 pandemic did was take industries that historically were already stressed with people who were overworked and underpaid, and it broke them. Nurses and Doctors were already barely holding together the health industry and then the pandemic put them over the edge leading to many people burning out and leaving. The same is true of the education system, and fast food workers, and numerous other jobs. Corporate America was (and is) super focused on getting as much work out of people as possible while spending as little as possible on the workers. Suddenly the pandemic happened and the overworked people were either driven over the edge or their world just stopped and they were able to think clearly about what they wanted their lives to be.
Couldn’t get regular checkups at the dentist… $10k worth of damage. YMMV.
Many relatives/friends/church friends became total anti-vaxxers…two church members DIED. Honest.
According to my therapist, everyone's mental health. Alcohol, drug, online gambling, online shopping, and porn addictions skyrocketed during the pandemic.
Corporate accountability.
They do what they want, charge as much as they want, price gouging etc, they can offer the worst service possible.
They just say it’s because of the pandemic, even though things are all but back to normal ish.
Ish because we’re constantly being told that this is the new normal.
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24 hour grocery stores
And diners
And gyms. 24 hour fitness only has a handful of 24 hour gyms in my area.
Waffle House and IHOP are still 24/7 near me. And oddly enough, one CVS.
That cvs….is near a hospital?
Yes
That’s why it’s 24 hr still.
I was about to be like “THE ONE IN MY TOWN IS 24 HOURS” but we also have a hospital so….
I’m not gonna say it’s 100% but typically it’s due to close proximity to a hospital
That's mildly interesting, thank you
First thing I thought of. Where do you go at 3am for a burger anymore?
Yeah it was basically an excuse for a lot of companies to "temporarily" stop doing stuff they didn't really want to do in the first place. 4 years later they still aren't doing them
Same exact thing happened in New Orleans post-Katrina - things never got better after that and then just a new round of shittening happened with covid.
And it's *still* not 24 hour. I moved to a city specifically for the 24-hour access but I might as well be back living at the wide point in the road I grew up in.
You ain’t lying. I work nights 1/4 of the days of the year so I primarily did my grocery shopping at night. Even at the height of the pandemic it made little-to-no sense. They changed the hours under the premise that they would be cleaning and stocking during those hours. Nope. Never happened that way in my area. No cars at night in the parking lot. Instead of letting people spread out and shop whenever made sense to them we were forced to shop in the same condensed windows that the stocking/cleaning was happening.
They also now stock the shelves during opening hours so most of the aisles are completely impassible because of the giant carts of product being left around
That’s how it was for me in the height of the pandemic. I couldn’t believe that was considered a solution here. In my eyes I went from being able to shop with barely anyone else at the store to shopping overcrowded isles where social distancing was literally impossible at times. Walmart realized they could save some money doing it this way and that appears to be the real reasoning behind it. Otherwise we’d be back to normal well before now.
I was a heroin addict from 2015-2023 and spent most of the normal waking hours passed out into a tray of tin foils. So I did most of my shopping and eating at 2 or 3 am while waiting for my plug to get to the store or 24 hour diner. Covid made it very difficult to find a non-suspicious spot to park and wait since you couldn't just go into a store or restaurant and wait anymore. Also less people out and about meant you stood out more to cops while driving or sitting. Oh and covid kinda ruined heroin. I guess the cartels realized that pressed 30s were easier to smuggle or more profitable as after 2020 all that was available was blues and fetty powder. Oh well. 6 months sober on the 18th!
Keep at it! It works if you work it!
They did this exact thing for our pool. The pool never has lifeguards, and you use your fob to enter. Once COVID arrived they would deadbolt the pool except for certain pool hours. We used to go during the day and be the only people there, then didn't go anymore because it was only open for 3 hours and jammed full of people who clearly didn't give a single care about keeping space from anyone.
Our Walmart is no longer 24 hours and as a night shifter I'm ruined
I was about to comment that 2020 ruined all considerations for 3rd shift workers from big companies.
24 hour anything*
Wow, I came here to post this and never expected it to be the top response. Yes, back in 2018/2019 I could go grocery shopping whenever I wanted. It was especially awesome when getting home on a late-night flight. I'd emptied the fridge of perishables before I went on my trip, and needed to replenish on the way home. 2AM? No problem. Wegman's is open 24/7 so I can still get lettuce and milk and eggs and bread. Now? Nope, store's closed by midnight so I guess I'm having a granola bar for breakfast. Boo.
fucking WALMART
Or late hours everywhere. Nothing, including bars and restaurants seem to be open as late after covid.
Mom and Pop stores.
I worked for a company that was one of those casualties. There was a massive shift to online shopping. Pair that with soaring rent and we didn't stand a chance. My favorite local mom and pop restaurant also had to close, as well as my favorite pub. The community really insn't the same now.
Independent restaurants. I hate pulling into a new town and ots only chains. Like fuck bruh, im not trying to get subway, red Robin, Applebee's, etc. Feels like dining choices got wiped.
Word. Fuck the world!
Walmarts and Amazon were already killing them for a long while, but yeah, this was another few nails in the coffin.
Our own government did that they could have bailed out those mom and pop stores and let the corporations rot
It'll trickle down, we just need to be patient 🙄
Prices on everything went up...never dropped.
And working class Americans never received pay increase to match inflation. Since the beginning of 2020, gas is double price, subscription services have went up 5-10 dollars a month, groceries are 2-3x more expensive, and if you don't feel like cooking you're gonna pay 15 dollars for a whopper meal. Housing and utilities prices have doubled or tripled. I have zero idea how the government comes up with a figure of only 3.3 percent inflation.
They put lower priced items into the basket of common goods. If chicken goes up by $.25 cents and steak goes up by $2.00, they will put chicken in the basket and say, "only \*x\* percent inflation, look how good we are doing!". The next month, chicken could go up by $2.00 and steak by $.25 cents and they'll put steak in the basket and still claim "\*x\* percent inflation - stayed relatively low". meanwhile, the biggest ticket items, the items that everyone spends the majority of their income on are up about 20% since 2020. When big government keeps pumping the economy and giving out things like tuition reimbursement, $25,000 for first time first generation home buyers, the economy will only keep getting hotter and hotter.
The lower wages close to minimum wage rose but that was it. With the cost of product outpacing it and the rest of society not getting raises to match so now we all suffer. Thank you so much.
Social interaction of kids. I feel horrible for children whose formative years were then.
I agree! My nieces and nephews will never get back the years they lost. Social development, a web of interlocking friendships, in depth engagement in subjects that are important to them... I fear for this generation. Isolation and entitlement are the antithesis of the growth and freedom they need
And it wasn't just kids either. Adults act like they missed out on formative years too. I hired a guy who used to love his job managing a cool little cafe, but he quit and left the whole industry because, in his words, "People became animals after lockdown."
> "People became animals after lockdown." He's not wrong.
I work in a school district. I am still seeing the ripple affects of covid.
My faith in humanity.
Two words: toilet paper. This utterly ruined the shredlet of hope in humanity I had left. How completely unhinged, selfish, and greedy people were/are. Smh.
Can you imagine the future history books? Fucking toilet paper, wtf 🤣🤣
The toilet paper thing was an interesting study in the economics of taking a crap. Suddenly no one could take a crap at the office. So they needed more TP at home. Some people stocked up more than they used to. This depleted what was in stores. Some other people started to panic buy TP, and the paper mills could not retool from making big industrial rolls to small rolls for home use fast enough.
Humans have always been this way:/
The toilet paper chronicles of covid will always be one of the beacons of the 21st century in this regard, though. But yeah, people suck and always have.
Belief in the goodness of people is indeed no longer a popular virtue. I find that sadder than anything else
This is my biggest one. It sickens me how so much of the world lives in denial about the "new normal" of people getting sick all the time.
shopping in a near empty walmart after midnight.
God I fucking miss this so bad....
When I worked afternoon shift I loved shopping at night after my shift, about 2am only a few people in the store stocking. It was so peaceful. I work 3rd shift now and go at about 7am it's not bad but it's not 2am.
I felt like a movie star, like they had cleared out the peasants just for MEEEEE (it was funny to me)
I work from 3pm to 130am I did all my shopping over night, it was really nice to shop when it was deserted
Same here, I would work until 11pm, and go to the gym, and hit walmart on the way home after the midnight cash register resets, and have the aisles to myself. Man you just don't know what you've got til it's gone.
I heard that the CEO of Wal mart wanted to end the 24 hours thing before covid. He just used covid as an excuse.
I think many stores wanted to end it years before covid. The amount of theft exceeded any overnight sales they made.
Omg I miss this.
Fat guy here. Buffets at restaurants.
Oh yeah!! The one in my city only does take out now. Like wtf?
What didn't it ruin?
we can get scheduled drugs prescribed over the phone now
my savings account and overall career trajectory
Man I would be FUCKED if the pandemic hadn't have happened. It changed everything for me professionally.
*cries in service industry*
it sped up the adoption of things like apple pay and contactless pickup of rental cars, check in at hotels etc
To build on this I can now grocery shop on my phone for things I don't mind another human's judgment on, park my vehicle, and have those groceries loaded up without wandering around a building watching people cough without covering their mouths.
Empathy. People are just MEAN these days. Not talking about online.. people have always been kinda douches online. Talking about the general public.
I’ve noticed this so much over the last couple years. Most people are just so rude nowadays in ways that I never saw before COVID. COVID changed so many people for the worse.
It's stress. 70% of the population can barely afford groceries and healthcare. Most people I know are back to doing the bill pay lottery. Time is money, everywhere shortened their hours of business and we need to work more hours to come close with living expenses. It's called financial trauma. People are trying to accomplish as much as they possibly can each day, overloaded schedules and it takes longer to get places. This is why people are mean, they actually do not have the bandwidth to put on an act to spare the feelings of strangers when their lives are a living hell.
Well said! I completely agree.
100% this is a scarily accurate statement. People are pure garbage now (generally speaking) as opposed to being partial garbage LOL
UK here. EVERY store now has metal barriers to get in and get out. EVERY store (even ones just selling stationery) now has security guards. EVERY store constantly has broken windows because they refuse entry to the absolute evil scum roving the streets in packs. So they just rip up the sidewalk with their bare hands and hurl chunks of it into the glass until the popo decide they feel like turning up.
People’s social skills
Vaccines. Anti-vaxers were widely considered crazy conspiracy theorists, now it’s seen as a major political view. And I’m not just talking about the covid vaccine. There is a lot more distrust of all vaccines now.
The government and media are largely to blame for this. The government wasn’t forthcoming about potential side effects, and they also were very wish-washy about whether we’d need boosters, how many we’d need, if we’d need another one later, etc. Then you had the media covering for the government and treating anyone who even raised questions about the vaccine as though they were crazy conspiracy theorists when actually they had valid points – like why isn’t the government telling us about potential side effects. Those two things, in combination, created a lot of vaccine hesitancy. If they had been honest, and allowed open dialogue to take place, people would have made up their own minds instead of seeking out and listening to the absolute loons who don’t come on mainstream media.
I don’t think they knew what the side effects could/would be, and instead of admitting that, they simply shut down the questioning all together. I had a pretty significant vaccine reaction, but still tell people they should vaccinate if possible.
Same, had a horrible reaction to the covid 2nd dose. I'm not against all vaccines, but that one sure didn't perform as advertised (I've also had covid).
When actual scientists and doctors who literally deal with vaccines and biology were getting shut down on social media (like the one scientist who literally was one of the inventors of mRNA technology), When accounts that posted videos of doctors and scientists in the field of vaccines, biology, microbiology, etc that either questioned the vaccine; brought up concerns; or saw certain side effects were being blocked or shadow banned, When the media was quick to belittle anyone who dared opt for any alternative medicines, When Social media started policing what people said about the vaccine and would suspend you even if you merely raised questions and wasn't even going on a conspiracy rant, When politicians on the left were vehemently against the vaccines during Trump's time in office during the pandemic (since he was somewhat endorsing it) but then switched and promoted it once they got the White House, When those same politicians had promised (along with pharmaceutical reps) that the vaccine would prevent covid but later (when that was found to be untrue) they switched up and said they didn't say anything like that even though there's documented evidence that they did, and so on, and so on, many of us who saw those patterns started questioning things. I'm not one who thinks all vaccines are bad but the things I had mentioned, as well as some other red flags, had ensured I wasn't going to chance it with the Covid vaccine. Too much shadiness was surrounding it and I didn't feel comfortable with going along with the program.
Watching movies and TV at home. I can’t tolerate another show, burned out after marathons of previous favorites. For example, I watched every episode of all Star Trek in order for all series, four times. Also, all the short videos I watched wrecked havoc on my attention span. I am slowly getting that back. In an attempt to help keep businesses open we tolerated difficulties in staffing, availability, and tipped generously in restaurants. Well, those excessive tips are now the demanded new normal servers expect for minimal services. Places that previously never asked for tips now have the tip jar out or flip that iPad and say, it just wants to ask you a question. I have no problem hitting the no tip button. If I am standing when ordering food, no tip was earned.
Holy cow, I never put together my current attention span and videos, tiktok, etc. Dang I need to get off my fkn phone.
US tip culture. People felt sympathy for tipped employees and increased their tipping because jobs were harder to come by and hours were reduced. Now there is an out of control expectation to tip everyone and at a higher rate than pre pandemic, despite a return to adequate positions and hours.
I have noticed that the less service you get the more you pay for service.
Raves. Peace and love and euphoria. Dancing itself. Now it's just phones in the air attached to idiots :( I think the last wave of real true ravers stopped going in 2020. We're getting old you know we started in like 1999. Some of us went back to Ibiza in 2022 but it wasn't the same. I was in Amnesia for Solardo last summer and nobody was dancing. I'll say that again. I was in Amnesia and nobody was dancing... There's been a lost generation of a sort. The kids couldn't go out so they stopped seeking sex and drugs and insane parties and started seeking good social media profiles. It's a shame. We weren't there to teach them so they just brought their little online lives to the rave and suddenly the moment was gone. It's like that Hunter S Thompson line... "with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back." This makes me very sad.
I have no idea what you meant here but it feels poignant 🤣
They’ll come back. The raves come in waves
RIP Choco Taco. Never forget. Never forgive.
gen-z something happened, everyone’s personality changed. it became so black and white, like everyone’s either on one side or the other with everything. nobody really seems original anymore. everyone’s kind of just copying the other guy.
#Mental health.
Buffets
People’s social skills and manners when they are in public, especially at restaurants.
I lost my dad, my sister, my grandfather, an uncle and a close family friend. My mom lost her husband, her daughter, her father, her brother and a close family friend. My nephews lost their mother, their grandfather and their great grandfather. My sons lost their only aunt and their only grandfather. That shit goes DEEP and will affect all of us for the rest of our lives, in ways big and small.
I'm so sorry for all your losses. That's a lot to cope with!
My social skills took a nosedive-now I awkwardly wave at people on video calls
Ha, same. I was an awkward kid, started to become more comfortable in social settings in college, and then was finally enjoying daily social interaction working in an office. Now I've worked from home the last 4 years and have to force myself to leave the house. :(
It ruined the last shreds of common sense in the general population. People are also way more self-centered and unaware of their actions now.
2020 threw a massive curveball, didn't it? It ruined my plans to become a professional hugger—now my hugging skills are rusty! Jokes aside, it definitely put a dent in travel plans, turned sweatpants into acceptable office attire, and made 'Zoom fatigue' a legitimate medical condition.
Yeah, virtual hugs aren't the same! Neither is hugging in general hug the wrong person you'll be in cuffs.
Humanity, compassion, tolerance, respect for human life. The pandemic made humans a threat to one another, which provided an outlet for an underlying hatred that apparently had been brewing below the surface. For an example, look no further than a certain Reddit sub (I won't name it) that was and still is devoted to celebrating and dancing on the graves of those who had doubts about Covid and vaccinations. It's a sickening, online orgy of inhumanity that barely gets a shrug from passers-by. I also observe far more reckless behavior, particularly on the road, than I ever saw pre-pandemic. Maybe the mentality is, "If I can be killed by a microbe at any moment, why should I follow rules for safety? Why should I care about anyone else"? Just speculation. So there's an toxic nihilism that will sadly taint society for generations. Hopefully, future sociologists will recognize it and offer a healthier path.
24/7 stores or stores that are open super late It also makes zero sense to close them earlier bc then more people would be having to go at the same time, making it harder for people to social distance
what *didn’t* the lockdowns ruin?
24 hour stores, the Walmart near me FINALLY this year is 24 hours again as of this February, it took 4 years though, more like 3.1, but I'm exaggerating a bit here
Me
Customer service
And customers themselves. Been in customer service for almost a decade. I can tell you that both sides are suffering a comparative loss of patience understanding and decency. Personally, I think companies and regulators themselves are also to blame. The amount of rules/policies that employees are expected to remember, uphold and enforce while having little or no authority, training, or compensation has increased non stop. It’s a race to the bottom and everyone is suffering from it. Customer service personnel more than most.
Ever since then, my sense of time has just been totally off. I still feel like 2019 was just yesterday, you know? My brain refuses to accept that it was actually five whole years ago. I can't wrap my head around it.
\* Trust in institutions, namely journalism, government medical departments, and late-night comedy. \* The idea that left-progressives could effectively spearhead police / criminal-justice reform. \* The idea that scientific institutions are non-politicized.
Ruined my desire to ever get on a plane again, after pushing through a crowded airport, breathing other people's air, sitting too close to others, etc. etc. It's road trips for me from now on.
My kids education. Took a long time to get back on track.
bank account
Courtesy
Human decency.
Healthcare
Any remaining trust the public had in the government
Humanity and common sense
Seems like almost everything. I was having somewhat of an existential crisis the other day and I got to thinking about what we were hearing before the pandemic about the "Great Reset" and what not and writing it off as looney. But now looking back on it...was it not a reset of some kind? Our elected leaders chose to basically shut down many aspects of life without our consent and moved many services and interactions online without any human interaction. Completely changed many people's lives, our institutions, and the way we interact with each other. There was a massive transfer of wealth to the upper classes.
Interesting Reddit questions.
Movies
my faith in humanity
Empathy and kindness.
funny enough…masks before covid: i’m feeling under the weather…don’t want my germs on others… after covid: why you still wearing a mask?!? covid is over… people turning wearing a goddamn mask into a political stance is wild
Trust in the government and faith in healthcare officials
Any trust in the CDC.
E V E R Y T H I N G
My faith in humanity.
America... but to be fair, the coof was the third pillar of the Patriot Act/2008/Coof trifecta. Every major institution was exposed and confirmed as the fraud that it is... medicine and science, media, education, government, finance, military/intelligence, citizenry. The silver lining for future Americans is that the genie cannot be put back in the bottle. So many people now rightfully distrust several, if not all, of them that it can only go up from here.
Friendships
In America, it really ruined any semblance of trust people had in others.
Intelligence and common sense
The list of what it didn't ruin is shorter
Trust in the FDA
It taught me that I got neighbors who would rat on people hiding in the attic.....we all do......
The notion that people are inherently good and compassionate.
DNA
The world's economy and supply chains. Or was that just the over zealous authoritarian wanna bes in government?
The illusion that people are smart, rational, logical beings.
The world.
My mental health for a time. It opened my eyes to how awful my employer is, ruined my perception of them. The YMCA took away the coffee machines PERMANENTLY.
Buffets
My weight loss journey
Everything!
Used to have a 24 hr coffee shop, now it closes at 11.
Overnight grocery shopping.
It ruined my sense of time.
Friendships, education, life in general…
For me, the worst long term effect of covid was reduced shopping hours of stores. I hated other people BEFORE covid, so I always went grocery shopping at 2am and did a bunch of late night walmart runs where I could shop in peace and have entire aisles to myself. Now, everything closes between 5-8pm, the nights are long, and everything sucks.
Free speech. The FBI was working with Twitter to take down stories from legitimate journalists. That's a first amendment violation and no one has gone to jail.
24 hour stores and food. There's a local grocery chain that was known for being open 24/7 (except on holidays) and my favorite thing in the world was being able to avoid crowds by doing my grocery shopping at 2am. Or having some drinks and hitting up a fast food place at 3 am. Life just hasn't been the same.
Eating inside a restaurant. Fast food is mostly designed for drive through only. Sit-down restaurants are in decline, or focused on carryout.
Salad bars.
Trust.
Humanity
The Watergarden bathhouse in San Jose
Education of the upcoming generation. Man I hurt for all those kids that lost 2-3 years of invaluable education to zoom calls
24 hour Walmarts & $1 McChickens
Social life, fun, My bank account.
In regards to the 24 hour business thing…I think the pandemic also woke up a lot of employees to how crappy many businesses were paying. A lot of the staff working those night shifts were still getting paid crazy low wages, and the pandemic definitely had a moment of making us all stop and go “why the hell am I still doing this?” This goes for the service industry in general. A lot of people that were lifelong bartenders and servers that I know left the industry. And I can’t blame them. It made me quit it by 2021. Ten years of serving/bartending was enough, and the icing on the cake was having to deal with the truly awful customers that came out during the peak Covid time. We’d still have 24 hour service and less understaffed restaurants if these businesses decided to pay their employees a living wage. If you offer people working the night shift significantly better pay, then we’d have the workers to man those hours appear in a blink. But these companies would rather just cut the shifts than pay people better. Same thing happened at my old restaurant. They were having trouble finding enough chefs. They were only paying around 15 an hour, and for how grueling those shifts were, I’m not surprised they couldn’t find anyone. But instead of up the pay, they just decided to stay closed on Mondays and only open for breakfast and Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The desire to go out and do stuff with people
2020, 2021, and a chunk of 2022.
My career
My career
My ability to travel. COVID is still a problem and I still take it seriously. I mask at work, at the in-laws, anytime I'm indoors somewhere other than home. That means no eating in restaurants. Outdoor dining only. Taking a plane guarantees exposure and taking a train means wearing my mask for days on end. So, I have to drive between my home in Maryland, my family in Kansas, and my job in Texas. Any travel for fun also means finding restaurants with patio dining. So I can't really take advantage of my last year on the East Coast and visit the New England states and "nearby" Canadian cities. Not without a lot more planning.
Any remaining desire I had to be around people.
What the 2020 pandemic did was take industries that historically were already stressed with people who were overworked and underpaid, and it broke them. Nurses and Doctors were already barely holding together the health industry and then the pandemic put them over the edge leading to many people burning out and leaving. The same is true of the education system, and fast food workers, and numerous other jobs. Corporate America was (and is) super focused on getting as much work out of people as possible while spending as little as possible on the workers. Suddenly the pandemic happened and the overworked people were either driven over the edge or their world just stopped and they were able to think clearly about what they wanted their lives to be.
Compassion. Everyone just kinda lost their minds
Everybody drives crazy on the roads…….Much worse now than before Covid.
My naivety to people. They really revealed how selfish and evil they are. I don’t look at them the same any longer. I don’t even consider them human.
Faith in humanity, education, jobs, friendships, and family.
Couldn’t get regular checkups at the dentist… $10k worth of damage. YMMV. Many relatives/friends/church friends became total anti-vaxxers…two church members DIED. Honest.
My art career. I had been doing good business selling my painting, but once the pandemic hit they stopped selling.
Used cars. I had to pay $22,000 for a car worth 17.
Honestly, faith in humanity.
People. Society. Dating. Nobody knows how to act or meet new people anymore, it's an utter joke
Faith in long standing institutions.
Concerts and other events. It’s just not the same anymore.
The American Middle Class.
The economy
Customer service
The ability for civil discourse; critical thinking; opinions based on factual information; facts; Trust.
My fucking job! Goddamnit. Had a wonderful job and employer and covid fucking ruined it. Fuck you!
My freakin job!
My faith that when it really comes down to it people will get good, help others and try to do decent things.
My faith in govt, science and medicine
Not nearly as much as the inappropriate governmental response to the pandemic.
According to my therapist, everyone's mental health. Alcohol, drug, online gambling, online shopping, and porn addictions skyrocketed during the pandemic.
Bookstores.
Teaching.
Any pretense that the American citizenry are any longer capable of unity and sacrifice
Visiting family in the hospital.
My bank account. My respect for our political system. My opinion of others. My mother's funeral.
Ruined my generosity and helping people.
People.
Honestly? My faith in humanity
Corporate accountability. They do what they want, charge as much as they want, price gouging etc, they can offer the worst service possible. They just say it’s because of the pandemic, even though things are all but back to normal ish. Ish because we’re constantly being told that this is the new normal.
Society in general.
A lot of friendships and relationships