#1
#2
Contrarian dipshits effectively leveraged social media and other outlets to exploit the fear and panic of the pandemic to push their chaotic nonsense, and we have not yet recovered from that. And we may never.
#3
I was a restaurant host at the time, and shortly after we reopened, I was cussed out by a Karen in front of her entire family because due to fire safety regulations, we weren't allowed to push tables together on the outdoor patio. Her son literally had to grab her and pull her away.
We also had more people thrown out of the restaurant that summer for being disrespectful to staff than any other year that I worked there.
A few weeks ago, a thread appeared in the AskReddit community, urging netizens to answer one question: "What never came back after the pandemic?" The thread turned out to be very lively (around 2.1K upvotes and over 3K various comments), incredibly atmospheric, and very nostalgic. Well, of course, not without a bit of humor.
So we, Bored Panda, who lived through the pandemic with you, now offer a selection of the most interesting and popular answers from the original thread. Let's go on a journey through our memories together!
#5
While I'm sure many will argue those numbers, fact is COVID k****d a lot of people, and none of them are coming back.
#6
Before covid we had animators, zootherapy, a greenhouse, a cafe run by patients, volunteers, special guests, bbq, etc.
Now every unit has 1 TV. And that's it. Covid saw the extras get cut due to social distancing, then they realized they could save money. And nothing came back.
It's effectively a prison but some people don't get out.
COVID-19, in addition to many inconveniences, has significantly changed the worldview of all of humanity. We realized how lonely we are when, for months, other people presented to us not as ordinary, warm, and tangible creatures of flesh and blood, but as just a set of digital signs on the screens of our gadgets.
Our habits have changed dramatically. Many experts say that a person needs only 30 days of repetition to develop a new habit. We spent several months in isolation—so it is not surprising that completely different people came out of their houses after the pandemic.
#7
Affordable goods and services.
Affordable foods.
Affordable shipping costs.
#8
#9
"This is the specificity of human thinking on a global scale," says Valery Bolgan, a historian and editor-in-chief of the Intent news agency from Ukraine, to whom Bored Panda reached out for a comment here. "For example, older people tend to idealize the past not so much because it was really better to live then than now. They are more nostalgic for their own youth.
"Here too—the pandemic, of course, has significantly affected the economy and well-being of people around the whole world, but many of the negative processes in our society were actually launched long before it. Some of them even have their roots in the global crisis of 2008. But the pandemic is imprinted in our memory as the main disaster of its time, and we do blame it for literally everything."
#10
#12
"It’s also interesting, by the way, that the trend towards expanding remote work took place long before the pandemic—and not all companies were actually happy about it. So the ‘return to offices’ trend caused by the end of quarantine restrictions actually became for many employers just a separate reason to do what they had wanted for a long time anyway," Valery Bolgan reasonably notes.
This, by the way, is damn true. For example, Zoom appeared back in 2013 and was already widely used by many companies and freelancers around the world long before the pandemic. The same goes for the numerous other remote work services that simply experienced a real boom in 2020.
#13
My job went 100% digital during the lockdown, and will remain digital for the foreseeable future.
What's funny is that we learned we can do 100% of our job working from home, but recently they made us all go back to the office just to do what we were already doing at home, except now under bright fluorescents!
#14
Pre-Covid, I used to spend 20-30 minutes every morning putting on a full face of makeup before work. When we had to start wearing masks I stopped wearing makeup altogether. The masks came off, and now I can't bring myself to waste so much precious time in the morning. Now it's just a bit of mineral face powder, eyeliner, mascara and a touch of tinted lip balm, and I'm good to go.
#15
In fact, we have yet to fully understand what the pandemic meant for us and our society. And perhaps our children will properly do this—after all, as they say, great things are better seen from a distance.
So the pandemic, without a doubt, was the greatest disaster of our time. And God willing, may it so... Just read this selection, please, leave your comments—and consider what we may have missed here.
#16
#17
#19
