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While we already allow ourselves to live more freely knowing that the pandemic is more or less controlled, we can still feel its effects. Even though this phenomenon hit us differently, it still made an impact on each and every one of us. While some lost their loved ones, were laid off, or had to say goodbye to their dreams, others might’ve been lucky to get out of it with less painful consequences. Having this in mind, Reddit user u/blancheneige37 asked others online “What did the pandemic ruin more than we realize?” The question that received more than 42k upvotes encouraged people to share their insights on what changed during the pandemic and hasn’t come back to its previous state.
Soon Reddit users started sharing what they’d noticed since the beginning of Covid-19, revealing how much our relationships with one another have changed and how kids and youth were robbed of getting an opportunity to socialize and now might struggle with their emotions and anxiety. Others also noticed that the way they see money has changed as now many things are much more expensive, and even having a takeout is considered a luxury. Not to mention the number of rising businesses that had to be closed due to the inability to adapt to this sudden change. What are some of the things that you have noticed to be different than before? Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments down below!
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#1
It ruined me on traffic, for one glorious year, as an "essential worker" I had the roads almost entirely to myself, it was beautiful.
RELATED:
#2
Leaving the house.
Goes to Subway - I can make a better sandwhich at home.
Goes to a nail salon - I can paint my nails better than this lady.
Goes to a hair salon - I’ve been cutting my hair solo for 2 years now, I’m a pro.
Goes to work - I can do all of this more efficiently at home.
Goes to Applebees - I can provide myself with mediocre service at home.
Goes to Walmart - I can order all of this online.
Why did I leave the house again…?
#4
The belief that Americans are able to come together in a crisis and be willing to make sacrifices for the greater good.
We’ll never trust each other again.
Yeah, okay. 2 years ago
I honestly blame the leadership at the time. Trump divided people by going against science, forcing states to one-up each other in return for federal aid ("be nice to me", remember that quote?), refused to consider national policies so states were on their own, the last goes on and on. Trump was never, ever a leader. He was a dictator-by-election wannabe who thought driving attention to himself by any means possible meant he was "popular".
#5
The health system is wrecked. Way too many nurses got burnt out and left the profession.
Kookamunga 2 years ago
They lost a bunch of nurses who wouldn't vaccinate as well - shameful. Buh-bye, morons!
#6
I feel like everyone is more bitter now. Like we all saw through the sham of society. Time feels different now. Things just feel off compared to pre 2020
oboe lover (he/they <3) 2 years ago
isn't that good though? the curtain fell, it doesn't make me happy, but now progess can start?
#7
Worker/employee relationships. A lot of people woke up to how s****y a deal we have it in the united states. Wealthiest country in the world. No guarantied sick leave, no paternal/maternal leave. We gave big business bailouts AND they still raised prices and fired workers.
#8
The cost of living is pretty f****d
Nichole Harris 2 years ago
I'm nauseous every week trying to budget now...my anxiety so high....
#9
Family relations. Vaxxed vs antivax, mask vs no mask, covid deniers vs lockdown advocates... Fractured a lot of my family and many others.
#10
"essential" versus "non essential" employees, better known as those who HAD to show up physically in person, and those allowed to stay home. Biggest division in the workplace. Mentally it will never be the same in the workplace.
Frankthetank 2 years ago
March 2020, I learned that I was essential. I did not want to be essential. I quit my 22 yr. career December 2021. The pandemic changed ME.
#11
Grocery Shopping at 2:00am was the best thing ever. Now I have to shop with the rest of you hooligans and it f*****g sucks.
#12
My perception on money. I worked so hard to pay off debt, save up for a new house, get promotions. Now with the rise of housing costs and inflation I feel like money is literally such a made-up thing and I have no control over anything even with all the right decisions.
oboe lover (he/they <3) 2 years ago
money is a made up thing that you have no control of (unless you are a huge company CEO or smth) :/
#13
As a teacher, I can say that it’s definitely affected kids in a way people don’t realize. Kids who had their first year of school (or even second) during the pandemic act quite different than kids who had a normal introduction to school. Many of them seem to have fewer social skills and higher anxiety than kids from previous years.
James016 2 years ago
My son started primary school the September before the pandemic hit. Then it was home schooling but being so young there was no live lessons. He is in year 3 now (7-8 years old). I’m not sure how it affected him as he has speech and language issues from being autistic, but he and his classmates seemed to roll with it. However when school reopened, he was very happy to see his friends.
#14
This might just be local, but where I live, a S**T ton of businesses closed. I mean, half of them were closed. Not just because of the shutdown, they were closed permanantly.
#15
Increased polarisation of people politically, socially, economically.
#16
I'm not sure if anyone else feels the same way but my perception of time hasn't really returned back to normal since then
kitten levels tokyo 2 years ago
My ability to put up with being around people has not returned…
#17
I honestly don't think the majority of Americans especially truly understand just how f****d the healthcare system is and is going to be.
Not just staff burnout, but we have nationwide backorders on some really key medications and even things like blood and albumin shortages.
There have been times that we've literally just not had the supplies available to give a blood transfusion and have had to resort to alternative treatments for things like seizures because we simply do not have the normal medications available.
We have major equipment shortages too, there were several months that we couldn't consistently get Foley catheter kits and we're having to Frankenstein things together. Currently the only a-line kits my facility has are the double port ones that we use for swanz. Bariatric beds? Good luck finding one!
Entire supply chains and productions lines have ground to a hault.
Add staff burnout, staffing shortages, increased patient loads, deceased equipment, and it's just a domino tower.
But most people?
Not a single f*****g clue.
kitten levels tokyo 2 years ago
Being on the receiving end of a “Frankensteined” urinary catheter is my new worst nightmare.
#18
Printed menus… call me snarky but scrolling through your phone at dinner, whether with family or on a date, is s****y
the shrimp whisperer 2 years ago
THIS. EVERYTHING DOESNT HAVE TO BE F_CKING DIGITAL. I DONT WANT TO DEPEND ON THESE F_CKING THINGS. I USE EM A LOT. THEY'RE GOOD FOR FUN. BUT WHEN I GO TO SCHOOL I HAVE TO STARE AT A SCREEN ALL DAY. THEN I HAVE HOMEWORK, SO I DO THAT ALL EVENING. THEN I WATCH TV WITH MY FAMILY OVER DINNER AND IF I DONT, I'M VIEWED AS ALOOF. THEN BECAUSE I WAS TOO BUSY DOING SCHOOLWORK ALL DAY, I STAY UP ON MY PHONE DOING THINGS I WANTED TO DO. MY EYES HURT. I FEEL SICK. I'M DEPRESSED. I'M APATHETIC. I'M NEARLY ANHEDONIC. I CAN'T SLEEP. MY HEAD HURTS. I'M BRAINWASHED. I'VE HAD ENOUGH. i'll be back tomorrow y'all :D i'll be sure to read all your comments and like all your posts :D yup i'll be an active user for a very very very long time :DDD im really raging against the machine amirite? :D
#19
**view on people, their hygiene, and their mental capacity.**
I started to notice that people cough and sneeze without using their hand/arm and just do it into the open, into a room or hallway full of people, directly at people, when they wear a mask they would remove the mask before sneezing or coughing into the open - all without any remorse or understanding why this would be bad or generally why it would be disgusting, no matter if it’s during a pandemic or not.
this still happens, daily I see someone doing it.
it’s mind blowing to me, absolutely mind blowing, considering what we all went through and why.
#20
the lockdowns happened during my last semester of university. I've never had an in person job, only work from home, which I realize is a blessing but also makes it feel like... idk like it's not real. I have no work friends, have never met my supervisor in person, I do all my work from my desk in my room. It feels like pretend.
#21
Everything just feels off, people are rude, no parties or overnight hangouts, most people nowadays keep themselves busy on their phones and tiktok. My mental health also took a hit. The time before 2020 feels like a colourful fantasy while the present one feels like a dystopian world
kitten levels tokyo 2 years ago
Kind of agree. Pre 2020 felt like a dystopian world. The present feels like a less-fun dystopian world.
#22
My waistline, and my mental well being. It's my own fault, but I was about six months sober and working out daily before covid. A few days later, half my department and my co-manager are laid off.
I'm suddenly working 14-hour days in extremely stressful conditions.
Walking my dog and working out took a back seat to a shot or two of Jack to calm my nerves and whatever comfort food I could get from grubhub.
Life is better now, but I haven't quite kicked all the bad habits I gained from those days.
Stress affects me differently, and I'm a lot more sensitive to it than I used to be.
#23
When you combine social media with a global pandemic it forced all of us to realize people don't suffer equally. In the age before social media, we could rely on tradition or culture to justify sacrificing to come together. Nowadays we must be guarded to not be exploited.
Graham Berry 2 years ago
Yeah, a lot of the Ritch showed that they could go on a 2 year long vacation with little issue where everyone else was forced to live Day to day in a very real fear of homelessness and death.
#24
Faith in humanity.
RafCo (he/him) 2 years ago (edited)
Nah, i have available faith in humanity. Faith that we will happily kill our neighbors to avoid a little inconvenience. I'm writing this in bed with insomnia at 3AM, just after my dog farted, so my mood isn't at it's best.
#25
Feels like it’s a more ‘to each their own’ sense of living. People don’t appear to be as connected as before the pandemic.
Headless Roach 2 years ago
I think the pandemic just expedites what was happening already before in this aspect
#26
People's driving is so out of wack, my only concern is to make it home in 1 piece.
#28
Niche retail
There was this cool place that sold vintage chanel, hermes, 70's pieces
They needed the exploratory foot traffic to survive. Covid killed em
Wood Carver 2 years ago (edited)
My local outdoorsy everyday carry knife pen and gadget store went for the same reason, it was impulse buy central but nothing you needed. I miss it
#29
I’m in my 40’s, but the pandemic really cut the list of friends I socialized with in half. We got out of the habit of seeing one another, and now that things are back to “normal”, we just made a habit out of not having dinner dates and stuff like that. When I realized this was happening, it made me look back and realize that I was the one who used to plan things and reach out. I made the conscious decision to stop being the one who always reached out, called and texted and I now see that I’m only in touch with half the people that I used to be.
EDIT: I am not talking about socially awkward, depressed, introverted people. If anything, I’m the introvert, and I still always made a point to reach out. I’m referring to people who still go out, celebrate holidays and birthdays and socialize. Just not with me anymore apparently. There are only so many times I can try and make plans with people who don’t do the same with me. I cannot be the one putting 100% into a friendship.
kitten levels tokyo 2 years ago (edited)
Some might say you may not be an introvert if you were always “the one to plan things and reach out.” 😀
#30
People seem so much shi**ier in large group public situations now. I don't know what it is, but etiquette in places like a movie theater use to be standard, but every experience I've had lately has been horrible. People talking, sitting there on their phones, and other just generally bad things.
I've heard the same about concerts, but haven't been to as many myself. I've heard from others where people used to be polite (help each other up in pits and stuff and so on), they now just don't give a f**k.
It's like people are just more rude now for some reason. I'm really interested to know if this is happening everywhere or if I just live in a s****y rude a*s place.
What do you think ?
Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
Everyone seems so much more gloomy and pessimistic these days. And I've noticed that I myself have become curiously numbed to bad news. Nothing seems to shock me much any more. My friend has cancer? Well s**t. Local woman drowns both of her kids and then herself and they don't find the second kid's body until the next day? That sucks. It's not that I have *no* reaction - I feel sad and I feel sympathy. I just don't feel shocked.
Tim 2 years ago
The response now is, "who had San Francisco using murder robots on their 2022 apocalypse bingo card?" instead of ,"holy s**t, murder robots? Who ok'd this atrocitity!?"
Load More Replies...
David Leick 2 years ago
My faith in humanity was never quite ironclad. But, people zealously refusing to do the bare minimum to help one another out completely depleted it for me.
JoJoB 2 years ago
Food for thought: Were all these changes caused by the pandemic or by the omnipresence of social media in all aspects of life now?
Kat Min 2 years ago
The pandemic. A freind of mine has this huge tomb of a book about the history of plagues. A substantial percentage of humans have always gone batshit crazy during plagues. The denial, the conspiracy theories - you find them at every plague in history. Many people simply cannot cope with this kind of desaster.
Load More Replies...
Debbie 2 years ago
Lots unrelated to covid has happened these past years, and they had a big influence on my life. People value time a lot more now, value family/home time. It enabled working from home more. I think it also (together with short supplies due to wars etc) recycling and reuising is more and more on the agenda. No more one use products - those are meant for profit of an organisation. Reusable items don't generate as much money as single use. The economy is changing. Workers are stirring - the employee shortage shows a change. Maybe a more positive post would be how the pandemic Changed things (for better or worse). It is the start of a new era. What will this period be referred to later in the history books? Will these be the years of change, with the pandemic as catalyst. The anti-abortion laws, the employee shortage, the wages, shortage of items/base materials. The future is not as clear as it was before.
Stump Rumpersonne 2 years ago
The assumption that most, at least well over half of people are good-hearted. The pandemic and the surrounding political climate taught me that if people don't feel safe or are unable to understand something they double down and dig in with aggressive, selfish stupidity, violence and hate.
Kat Min 2 years ago
I believed that my stodgy, burocratic home country (Germany) was slow and old-fashioed but at least well organized, full of respobisble adults and could react to a serious crisis. ... ... Never in a million years would I have believed that my country is chockful of infantile cry-babies and run by incompetent people who avoid responsibility like the plague. For me, the pandemic had some psoitive effects but the loss of trust in my government and especially in the administration is not one of them.
Benita Valdez 2 years ago
Not one mentioned losing their loved ones and I feel a bit more bitter. My life was turned upside down with the loss of both of my parents and other people in my life. Covid took my life without even infecting me once. Funny how that works out
LynzCatastrophe 2 years ago
It's ruined people for me. I never was a people person, I've worked retail my entire adult life, but it seemed to bring out the entitlement of people, entitlement they did nothing to earn or deserve, yet act as if they are the most important thing in the world.
Lara Verne 2 years ago
Pandemic ruined my finances, my health and all faith in humanity I had (not much).
Lord Mysticlaw 2 years ago
A lot of people lost jobs and still can't find new jobs because unemployment has skyrocketed and employers can take their pick of younger people who are willing to work for lower salaries. Money might not make you happy but poverty will sure make you miserable.
Sean Sean 2 years ago
Not to mention that the homeless population, at least in the USA, is increasing rapidly due to low wages and high rents (and rental requirements).
V 2 years ago
Not just USA. In Australia we have a massive problem with people being perfectly capable of affording rent on a home, but being denied so often they are living in caravan parks. We also lost a lot of houses due to natural disasters in the last couple of years and with the lack of building materials they are not being replaced any time soon.
Load More Replies...
Katie Lutesinger 2 years ago
Everyone seems so much more gloomy and pessimistic these days. And I've noticed that I myself have become curiously numbed to bad news. Nothing seems to shock me much any more. My friend has cancer? Well s**t. Local woman drowns both of her kids and then herself and they don't find the second kid's body until the next day? That sucks. It's not that I have *no* reaction - I feel sad and I feel sympathy. I just don't feel shocked.
Tim 2 years ago
The response now is, "who had San Francisco using murder robots on their 2022 apocalypse bingo card?" instead of ,"holy s**t, murder robots? Who ok'd this atrocitity!?"
Load More Replies... David Leick 2 years ago
My faith in humanity was never quite ironclad. But, people zealously refusing to do the bare minimum to help one another out completely depleted it for me.
JoJoB 2 years ago
Food for thought: Were all these changes caused by the pandemic or by the omnipresence of social media in all aspects of life now?
Kat Min 2 years ago
The pandemic. A freind of mine has this huge tomb of a book about the history of plagues. A substantial percentage of humans have always gone batshit crazy during plagues. The denial, the conspiracy theories - you find them at every plague in history. Many people simply cannot cope with this kind of desaster.
Load More Replies... Debbie 2 years ago
Lots unrelated to covid has happened these past years, and they had a big influence on my life. People value time a lot more now, value family/home time. It enabled working from home more. I think it also (together with short supplies due to wars etc) recycling and reuising is more and more on the agenda. No more one use products - those are meant for profit of an organisation. Reusable items don't generate as much money as single use. The economy is changing. Workers are stirring - the employee shortage shows a change. Maybe a more positive post would be how the pandemic Changed things (for better or worse). It is the start of a new era. What will this period be referred to later in the history books? Will these be the years of change, with the pandemic as catalyst. The anti-abortion laws, the employee shortage, the wages, shortage of items/base materials. The future is not as clear as it was before.
Stump Rumpersonne 2 years ago
The assumption that most, at least well over half of people are good-hearted. The pandemic and the surrounding political climate taught me that if people don't feel safe or are unable to understand something they double down and dig in with aggressive, selfish stupidity, violence and hate.
Kat Min 2 years ago
I believed that my stodgy, burocratic home country (Germany) was slow and old-fashioed but at least well organized, full of respobisble adults and could react to a serious crisis. ... ... Never in a million years would I have believed that my country is chockful of infantile cry-babies and run by incompetent people who avoid responsibility like the plague. For me, the pandemic had some psoitive effects but the loss of trust in my government and especially in the administration is not one of them.
Benita Valdez 2 years ago
Not one mentioned losing their loved ones and I feel a bit more bitter. My life was turned upside down with the loss of both of my parents and other people in my life. Covid took my life without even infecting me once. Funny how that works out
LynzCatastrophe 2 years ago
It's ruined people for me. I never was a people person, I've worked retail my entire adult life, but it seemed to bring out the entitlement of people, entitlement they did nothing to earn or deserve, yet act as if they are the most important thing in the world.
Lara Verne 2 years ago
Pandemic ruined my finances, my health and all faith in humanity I had (not much).
Lord Mysticlaw 2 years ago
A lot of people lost jobs and still can't find new jobs because unemployment has skyrocketed and employers can take their pick of younger people who are willing to work for lower salaries. Money might not make you happy but poverty will sure make you miserable.
Sean Sean 2 years ago
Not to mention that the homeless population, at least in the USA, is increasing rapidly due to low wages and high rents (and rental requirements).
V 2 years ago
Not just USA. In Australia we have a massive problem with people being perfectly capable of affording rent on a home, but being denied so often they are living in caravan parks. We also lost a lot of houses due to natural disasters in the last couple of years and with the lack of building materials they are not being replaced any time soon.
Load More Replies... Related on Bored Panda
