20 Things That Will Never Go Back to Normal After Covid
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After Covid, numerous aspects of our lives have changed, and there are 20 things that may never return to how they were before. Remote work, face masks, travel, online shopping, healthcare, and virtual education are among the key areas that have been transformed. The post-pandemic world will likely be different from what we knew before.
Sense of Time
One was quick to add, “Sense of time is f**** up. Like If I skipped three years of my life.”
Another said, “I went from being pretty close to approximating when a past event happened to have no clue now. “That happened last year… no, wait, six years ago? Whatever.” Time got wibbly wobbly.”
Wait Times
A user replied, “We are experiencing higher than normal call volume” The wait time at your local emergency department is: 4h 53min … are you sure you need to be here?”
A second user responded, “It’s 8+ hours here in Alabama. People say universal healthcare will cause long wait times, but we already have them. It took months for me to see an endocrinologist.”
Social Lives
A popular comment was, “My social battery.”
Another most-read comment said, “I don’t know what happened – I was literally going to a music festival once every 2-3 months, multiple music shows, hanging out with friends and going out camping, partying, etc. Now, me and my wife just kind of sit at home and maybe go out to a park or do some hiking and every once in a while go out to a board game night.”
Housing Prices
“House prices seem like they’ll be forever unattainable now.”
Another added, “I just want the bottom to fall out. My area used to be a low-cost-of-living area. Now? Not so much.”
Caring About Anything
One person wrote, “Me giving a sh** about my career.”
A second person responded, “Uh, same! I’m so over everything and everyone. I just want to live on a big property in luxury where I can do all my **** I enjoy from home and only venture outside of it once or twice a week to see family.”
A third person added, “Impending doom is real, and it f**** sucks. I’m 32, and I have never once had a job where I did not feel like I would lose my job tomorrow. The stress and anxiety are crippling. I don’t even play music in the car anymore. To and from wherever I’m driving, it’s just silence.”
Restaurant Delivery
One popular comment was, “Direct delivery from restaurants. Everything is now being funneled through DoorDash, Uber Eats, etc. I just wanna call the Chinese place and order delivery at a normal price, like in the old days.”
Another most-liked comment read, “The food always arrived and was usually what you ordered too. With DoorDash, it’s often wrong, and sometimes it never shows up at all. And getting your money refunded is like pulling teeth.”
Small Businesses
“There was a wonderful hobby shop in the town I live in. Sold RC vehicles, high-quality model kits, supplies, model train stuff, hosted MTG tournaments, Warhammer, etc., really, really nice place. It was run by the nicest guy and some of his friends. It’s gone now. “
A second replied, “That’s the worst. Those places are such bright spots, but they usually are only moderately successful in the best of times.”
A third said, “My business of 17 years. I’m still working on getting over it. I had no idea that I would grieve it.”
Students
One teacher wrote, “I’m a public high school teacher, and students’ attention spans are still very short relative to before.”
A second teacher replied, “I teach in a public middle school, and tied to the attention span, is the lack of self-discipline in the kids. Our students went almost a year with remote learning. Some made it through OK and are pretty much back to “normal.” They are a small minority. I spend more time dealing with the ones who have not been pushed to get homework done or even to work while in school. They just don’t seem able to pull themselves into working and try to find anything else that is more immediately rewarding.”
24 Hour Anything
“24-hour stores and restaurants. There are probably way less than half as there used to be.”
Another added, “I didn’t realize they hadn’t returned until I spent hours driving around looking for medicine for my son at 1 am.”
Manners
A popular comment read, “Honestly? People’s manners and their reasonableness. I work retail, and the average person has become significantly more needy, entitled, and angry over the last 3 years. It’s sad.”
Another comment said, “Certainly have nothing but anecdotes to base this theory on, but I wonder if the pandemic and being locked away/avoiding people made the average person more wary/hostile to others when they realized that they could mostly get on just fine without people and now that things have normalized w traffic/wait times, etc. coupled w rising inflation people see other people as more of a hindrance than anything else – the depersonalization of others essentially.”
Mental Health
“People’s mental health.”
A second added, “Between being cooped up and being alone with your thoughts for too long, and seeing everyone be so hostile towards one another in these last few years, it’s no wonder everyone’s mental health has collectively gone down the toilet.”
Paperwork
A user added, “Paperwork, everything is pdf and e-signed now. I don’t even see the people I used to get signatures from.”
Another happy user replied, “Honestly, as someone who works with lots and lots of paperwork. I’m okay with this. At least with a PDF AND E-sign, I have a secure backup copy for everything. Paper copies get damaged over time, even if you are especially careful. Also, who wants all that paper sitting around when you could just save them to a folder in your computer.”
Rent
A straight-to-the-point comment said, “Affordable rent.”
Another comment was, “I dream of being able to afford a crappy apartment as my parents dreamt of owning a home.”
Affordable Anything
One said, “Affordable anything, COVID was used as an excuse to ramp up prices. It’s never gone back down since.”
Another replied, “Literally EVERY.THING is more expensive. Some of it for no reason other than because they price it more. And corporate earnings show that. And Wall Street celebrates. Yet, amazingly, 401k went way up in 2021, then went way down in 2022, and we are sort of just hanging there.”
Hobbies
One comment said, “Cool hobbies that people picked up got left behind due to people going back to the “normal life” of working and working and working and traffic.”
A second comment read, “This has been one of the weird ones for me. I switched full remote at the start of the pandemic, and never stopped working. As a result, I really didn’t pick up any new hobbies or crazy projects.“
Hotel Cleanings
An annoyed user replied, “Hotel cleaning service. They all still have signs up that say they aren’t doing daily cleanings unless requested “to keep staff safe.” Total BS at this point.”
Another said, “I don’t mind not getting full service every day, but my last hotel stay was over a week, and I had to take out my own trash and beg for clean towels.”
Ability To Drive
“Seems like people have forgotten how to drive properly. Just this week, some dumb idiot did a left on red at an intersection while I was going through a green light and nearly t-bones me.”
Another added, “And the number of people driving with brights on in the middle of town! Today was the first time I’ve had to drive at night in a while, and it seemed like almost everyone had their frikkin bright lights on, no matter if there was oncoming traffic, someone in front of them, or anything.”
Trust in Government
A replied, “Any trust I had in the government to do what was best for the people.”
A second added, “…and any belief in the government; that its job/meaning/purpose was to do what was best for the people.”
In-Person Working
One joyful comment read, “My a** in the office. You would have to pay me a whole lot of money to work in an office again.”
Another happy user added, “I love that my morning commute is just up the stairs.”
Handshakes
One commented, “I feel like handshakes are still pretty rare relative to 2019.”
Another replied, ‘I’m very anti-handshake now. Like if I care about you, let’s hug. If I don’t care about you, don’t touch me.”
Quick Shipping
A popular comment was, “I’m shocked it’s not already listed, which makes me think I might be wrong, but it sure seems like Amazon’s two-day shipping changed to “hopefully within a week” shipping with Prime during covid. I get logistics are tough, but that’s what really sold me on the service before.”
Another comment read, “Definitely noticed this. “Two-day shipping” used actually to mean two days. Now it’s, “two-day shipping, in name only, you’ll get it in a week, probably, maybe, hopefully, if we feel like it.” Source: Reddit
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