In one way or another, every single one of us had our lives impacted by the relatively recent Covid-19 pandemic. After all, a global virus bringing a nearly worldwide lockdown is bound to create some permanent changes in our everyday reality.
Of course, major events like this have the tendency to shake up the ground we’re standing on and change some things irreversibly. But with not all of it being obvious at first glance, one Redditor decided to dig a little deeper and ask a question about what the pandemic ruined a lot more than we realized. Scroll down to read what people online answered!
More info: Reddit
#1
It ruined the illusion I had that my fellow humans were generally smart and well adjusted. Some had weird opinions but we agreed on the basics of humanity and how to keep it together.
It is clearly not the case.
Image source: ar_doomtrooper, 20fadhil: Revolution
#2
It really feels like corporations have an even stronger grip on the United States than ever. Like we are really being squeezed in every way, and it’s because our government is so heavily lobbied and controlled by corporations.
Pay rate, job security, benefits. All of these things seems to be getting objectively worse, or stagnating at best.
Image source: mirkwood11, SevenStorm JUHASZIMRUS
#3
A lot of smaller businesses completely died because of it.
Image source: lycos94, Tom Fisk
#4
My social battery. I am so drained all the time, I never want to do anything outside of work, even when it’s something i previously enjoyed. I’d rather stay home.
Image source: witerawy, Kindel Media
#5
The pandemic divided people. There were so much anger and hate between each other – vaxxed vs non-vaxxed , mask vs no mask etc.
Image source: Moon_Jewel90, Anna Shvets
#6
Tipping culture expanded, tips expectation went up, and never came back down.
Image source: Abigfanofporn, Dan Smedley
#7
The Social Contract. For example just being decent to one another. That’s been on decline but post pandemic it has not recovered.
Things such as respecting public spaces or others is gone for the most part. Feels like no one cares anymore and selfishness rules.
Image source: CabbageStockExchange, Craig Adderley
#8
Cheap food. The supply chain either still hasn’t stabilized or it has and we are being taken advantage of.
Image source: JurassicParkTrekWars, Engin Akyurt
#9
A lot of people’s basic manners.
Image source: LucyVialli, Monstera Production
#10
Availability. I’m a night owl and used to grocery shop at 2 am just by myself me and my headphones it was glorious.
Image source: Tsunamiis, Amar Preciado
#11
Our media literacy/trust wasn’t great pre-pandemic, but post we’re completely screwed. Nobody knows who or what to believe anymore. Objective truths are no longer objective truths, they’re instead pieces of a larger conspiracy or agenda.
Image source: IndividualTart5804, cottonbro studio
#12
The death count was metric focused on, but each of those deaths probably ruined the lives of many others. Not to mention those that survived but didn’t fully recover. The real number of people f****d up by death, disability, or loss of loved ones is huge.
Image source: itshonestwork
#13
My sense of time. I’m at a point now where I’ll be thinking of something from a couple months ago and then I’ll be corrected that it actually happened nearly 3 years ago.
Image source: pizza_whore_26, Leeloo The First
#14
Ruined the social skills of a whole lot of kids. Kids started kindergarten and then basically got yanked out of that for two years and stuck at home. Some struggle just to read ‘cuz they missed those years.
Image source: agreeingstorm9, Naomi Shi
#15
The economy never really went back to the way it was pre pandemic. Prices never normalized and the selection of products is much more narrow then it used to be. So everything now is more expensive, for smaller amounts of less selection of worse quality.
Image source: HiddenInLight, Stanislav Kondratiev
#16
Trust in the Government. It wasn’t 100% before by any means but it certainly took a nose dive during and after COVID.
Image source: To_Fight_The_Night, Aaron Kittredge
#17
Healthcare. The industry and the people in it who saw a lot of preventable dying and sickness are broken.
It’s not the same as it was before, and it probably won’t ever be.
Image source: StefanTheNurse, Matthias Zomer
#18
Dining out. Ridiculous prices, bad/no service, and lousy food. I don’t think any other industry has been as wrecked.
Image source: tallicafu1
#19
Businesses’ cleanliness and hours.
Go to some local box store, like Target. Walk around and see just how trashy it looks now. Clothes on the floor, because they don’t have enough staff to pick up the mess. Half empty shelves. It’s like they’re in a perpetual state of closing down.
Also, lots of late night stores and restaurants cut hours and never returned them. There’s nowhere for a night owl to shop at a grocery store near me anymore. Used to have a 24 hour grocery, now they close at 10 or something.
Image source: Alcorailen, mliu92
#20
Mental health. i get services from a free clinic, but they’re absolutely overworked. one of my previous therapists was dealing with like 70 patients. i have no idea how she lasted as long as she did.
Image source: guyinthechair1210, Alex Green
#21
I feel like the stuff I do for money has come to feel so f*****g meaningless. I press buttons and guide other people on pressing those buttons so some other people can print packaging. Everything’s so big a business needs 25 other businesses to survive. We’ve created millions of problems to sell made up solutions.
I don’t think I’m alone in this?
Image source: WesternUnusual2713, Elevate Digital
#22
My lungs. I’ve had a chronic cough since the first time I caught it. Never been the same since.
Image source: DaiLi69
#23
Faith in science and medicine for a lot of people.
Image source: Didntlikedefaultname, Chokniti Khongchum
#24
Alcoholism. It became normalized to drink at home, alone, during the day…etc. I know a lot of people who have maintained that habit even now.
Image source: onyxanderson, Nicola Barts
#25
The education and future of every kid born between 2006-2010. Ask any teacher. It’s a lost generation. They’re years behind, if even still in school.
Image source: NewMexicoJoe, Arthur Krijgsman
#26
The local live music industry.
Image source: sugarfoot00, David Brown
#27
Restaurant menus.
Image source: aaaaaaaaaAutorepair, Nienke Broeksema
#28
Communication. The shutdown caused us to lean heavily on new less efficient communication methods to get by and now that we’re back, people haven’t stopped leaning on them.
We have zoom meetings with people in the same building as us instead of walking 20 feet to their office. We block off hours for meetings that should be a sentence just to hang out on videocalls. People will g-chat (Gmail instant message )me to set up a zoom meeting with our cameras off for a single question. . . .AKA a phonecall with extra steps.
Everything is a meeting now . People end up missing one meeting because they’re double booked in a second meeting while running late for a third. Meanwhile not one of them needed to be a meeting
Everyone also expects immediate response from everyone at any time a day while also somehow being entirely unavailable themselves.
Image source: riphitter, Jack Sparrow
#29
Driving on roads, apparently there is a backslide ~~and~~ in how good we are at it and we’ve never recovered.
Image source: josefjohann, Peter Fazekas
#30
24 hour stores/restaurants/services in general.
Image source: LongShine433, 何 夏
#31
The ability for young people to acquire the same quality of life that their parents and grandparents have.
Image source: ShortOneSausage, Samson Katt
#32
Snow days for schools.
Image source: Relative-Ordinary-64, Dustin D.
#33
Organic dating.
Image source: Nutsnboldt, Budgeron Bach
#34
More indoors activities than it was before.
Image source: keysheet35, Cliff Booth
#35
Everyone’s teeth
Can’t get a dentists appointment.
Image source: Sowhatittilts
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