People who haven’t really resumed socializing at levels they used to, people who lost the capacity to regulate during interpersonal interactions, people who lost trust in others… I encounter lots of partial returners out there
I think a lot of people were waiting to see the results of the election. And COVID is still very real - immunocompromised people (e.g. elderly) will need to start taking vaccines twice rather than once per year due to recent mutations (except… hrm, I dunno if RFK will "allow* such, but at least that was the most recent guidance), plus everyone could get long COVID every time they get it despite the vaccine.
The pandemic changed our world, and it’s nowhere close to being over.
Also, inflation, so less disposable income to “go out” with.
We had a name before the pandemic… It’s “introvert.”
I’m more referring to people who aren’t so much choosing to isolate. Not a preference, but a loss of the capacity or opportunities to socialize
Maybe if we smushed the two together and made up a word? Like hikicovidomori
I think the term is hikikomori, and the cause is COVID isolation.
It’s all the doing of Nihon Hikikomori Kyokai…!
Hermits
I feel like the weird one out because lockdown was absolute hell for me. I need my community and my people. I go crazy being stuck inside a small apartment with nothing to do. I’m not fully an extrovert, I do need my alone time, but I also need to be with people I love.
Informed? Did the infection rates start dropping lately?
Yes, it started dropping years ago and is now less than 1% of peak infection rate. It is endemic now and treated like the flu. Keep living in a bubble for the rest of your life if you want, I guess.
Fun fact(s): The COVID strains that were active at the beginning of last year were actually more infectious and deadlier than the original COVID strains. The only reason we didn’t hear much about them is because, despite RFK Jr’s beliefs, the vaccines work. 443 people died from COVID in the US during the first week of November, even with the vaccines. There were about 15 deaths from the flu in that same week.
There are plenty of immunocompromised people who can’t get vaccinated who can no longer be in public without risking death now that COVID is endemic.
Where do you encounter these people that haven’t returned from isolation?
You don’t. That’s the point.
My socializing during the pandemic was more or less the same as before or after the pandemic. I am very sensitive to sound, a introvert, a huge nerd and don’t care for most of the topics “normal” people talk about like sport. I have no reason to go outside, I don’t like to be at places with many people and I don’t any knowledge in topic that can be used for smalltalk.
Due to this the biggest part of my social bubble is located all over the world and we communicate purely online. It was called lockdown but for me it was just a normal Tuesday.
Lockdown was a blast! I was paid to do what I always wanted; stay home and do whatever I felt like and not worry about other people.
Now that it’s over, I haven’t been able to keep a steady job. I’ve lost all the support I built up for myself in social situations.
I’m not placing trust in anyone who sold us out to corporations and fascists a second time
Introverts? Really I had a pretty good time
I’ll be honest, the lockdowns were awesome for me. “Now you bitches get to see how I live.”
And the mad increase of online ordering, no contact pickup, and how people aren’t crawling up your ass in line at the grocery store anymore? I could not have hoped for better.
I’m health wise OK but my wife isn’t for the rest of her life so I have to take precautions everywhere. I don’t mind because I really don’t like dealing with people anyway.
I do grocery pickup and go inside the store maybe four or five times a year now.
I haven’t been to the inside of a restaurant in over three years, we use patios and sidewalk tables outdoors.
I specifically only ever use gas stations where you pay at the pump.
I haven’t been to a mall or indoor space with people in years now.
I order everything else to my door.
I really don’t miss dealing with people and now find it completely weird and disorienting to deal with people in public now.
now find it completely weird and disorienting to deal with people in public now.
This is what I’ve been hearing (and experienced). And that it’s not a preference, it’s more that the nervous system has struggled to recalibrate; or there was not enough opportunity for it to do so and that has led to a feedback loop
Yeah it was certainly a net positive for some. Of course this post isn’t a criticism of those that enjoyed it, or were unaffected by it. But there is a sort of lost generation group, so to speak, too. That includes younger people who feel maladroit or disconnected in a way that they tie to that period. People who already struggled to socialize and the period made it worse enough that they never recovered
Yeah my youngest kid was on the middle of her second school year when the lockdown started. She was so anxious around people when in person school started again. She’s gotten somewhat better in the past couple years, but still not quite the same.
Yes some kids I know, it just sort of became how they identify: shy, more anxious
Gods do I miss social distance lines
I miss having free time without the impending pressure to do things.
😌 It truly was the good old days when we just had a global pandemic to worry about.
those left behind
I’m in this post and I don’t like it. I used to be social as hell, now I’m almost a hermit.
Same, and honestly it eats me away inside
Yeah. That’s me. Or anyone I know, really. Sure cities are back to pre-pandemic chaos, but those are other people.
I choose to work from the office on most days. I use public transit. I go to the gym. I’m not locked in, but …
- after-work drinks
- meetups
- catch up with a friend at the pub
- date night
- clubs
- partys
That’s a distant past. And i don’t miss it, really.
Ok, I do miss socializing, the good parts: Crack some jokes, have some small-talk, feel part oof a group of friends.
But i don’t miss it enough to endure that bad parts: Forcing oneselves into conversations with strangers, “networking”, drinking a beer alone in a corner of some event, going out to bar where over your overpriced drink you’ll accept that you’d rather be in your living room. Bars and night clubs are a weird concept (unless you are in your twenties and really enjoy the scene): You realistically only talk the person you came with, but they can’t hear what your are saying since it’s loud and crowded. There may be music, but unless you came to dance, you probably have a Spotify play list you’ll enjoy more. In better quality.
Oh hey it’s me
