It’s been over four years since we first heard of COVID. We can all be forgiven if we try to forget that tough time in our history and I hope we never will go through anything like that again. However, the world being the world, COVID is unlikely to be the last crisis in we face.
COVID altered a lot of things, first by immediately making us change so many things in our daily routines and then altering to a more practical perspective in the long run. Those couple of years between 2020 and 2022 was kind of a wrinkle in time, whereby first things jolted radically, only to snap back into somewhat familiar but different patterns.
Here are some examples of how things changed, and then how they snapped back in a different way:
The Workplace
Before Covid (BC): We worked in offices.
During COVID: We worked from home
Now: Sometimes from home, but mostly in offices again.
It turns out that working in-person, even with some annoying co-workers, is good for our mental health and the bottom line. The workplace is more flexible to accommodate daily routine changes, but most are working from offices most of the time.
Social Media
BC: A new, fun way to interact!
COVID: A toxic mess
Now: Meh, a little of both
Tough to think of social media as anything other than a mixed bag of funny things and awful garbage. It’s good to connect with other people, but it’s not all good. We still use social media, but now we do it warily.
Sneezing in Public
BC: Ignored, or tolerated with a “bless you!”
COVID: Terrifying!
Now: Kinda leery?
Sitting next to a sneezing person on a plane is not a death sentence, but neither is it entirely benign. It’s practical to take precautions. More people wear masks, and most people stay home when they are sick instead of “powering through.”
Vladimir Putin
BC: Strange but manageable
COVID: Eerily chummy
Now: Most Evil Person On Earth
Sure, we all knew he poisoned dissidents and didn’t allow his country to be free, but war crimes? Didn’t see that coming. “Getting along” with tyrants is no longer a benign option.
Taylor Swift
BC: A Popular singer
COVID: A Shut-in (like the rest of us)
Now: A bigger economic force than most countries
At this point shouldn’t we just give her a seat at the UN? She rode the wave of success by being great and joyful. Now she moves economies.
Pandemics
BC: We should probably prepare for one someday
COVID: The Plague returns!
Now: Kind of like a bad cold
Now, just like with the common cold, we can just complain about how nobody has come up with a cure yet. Dealing with it is a nuisance rather than a plague. Hopefully we’ve learned some lessons from this.
BC: This is the future of communication!
COVID: I have no idea what to believe now.
Now: Hey, does anybody remember Twitter?
Twitter went from something I ignored to something I cared about to something I ignore, all in about 18 months. Twitter (I refuse to call it X) turned itself from something necessary to a minor bit player by reminding us that the best way to communicate with others is directly.
Immigrants
BC: They’re stealing our jobs!
COVID: What immigrants? I don’t see any.
Now: Who’s going to put on my roof?
Seriously, who is going to do all of the jobs? We’re not picking our own vegetables or doing our own landscaping, I can tell you that. We all realize that immigration reform is a necessity in aging country. Now how do we do that in a smart way?
Elon Musk
BC: Wow, that guy sure is smart.
COVID: Wow, that guy sure is rich.
Now: Wow, that guy sure is weird.
Further proof that just because a person makes one good business deal doesn’t make him a genius in lots of other areas. I guess this means he will run for President someday. Will we fall for that again?
Politics
BC: Exasperating circus
COVID: Scary circus
Now: Joyful circus?
Getting rid of one really old guy sure made a difference in the political discourse. Maybe we’re on to something? Super-old-guys yelling at each other doesn’t really seem useful anymore, does it?
Movie-watching
BC: Let’s go to the movies!
COVID: Let’s stay in and stream movies!
Now: Who watches movies? Let’s binge TV shows!
What happened to movies? Nobody talks about them anymore.
Service Workers
BC: We need them, but let’s not pay them much.
COVID: We need them, so let’s pay them to stay home.
Now: We need them, so let’s tip them extra!
What a change this has been! It used to be we could ignore service workers because we didn’t realize how important they were until we lost them. Now we tip everybody everywhere out of a mixture of gratitude and guilt.
COVID changed us. Before the pandemic we took a lot for granted and didn’t realize how precarious our society was. The pandemic made us realize how interconnected we were when our society started to crack apart. We peered over the edge of an abyss and saw disease, political strife, and societal angst.
I think we’ve pulled back from the brink, but we’re still right there on the edge. Since the pandemic we have chosen practical paths back to reality. Will we continue to be pragmatic, or are we doomed to go over the edge?
We get to decide soon.