18 Things We’ll Never Forget the Pandemic For

The pandemic has had a profound and lasting impact on our lives, but some of the damage is less visible and more insidious than we might think. A user asked the forum, what did the pandemic ruin more than we realize? And here are the top results:

1. Sense of Purpose or Meaning

“My sense of purpose or meaning. I haven’t felt this nihilistic since I was a “brooding teenage girl.” Twenty years later, and now it’s more of an existential hell. (This is about the actual virus + politics + societal response.) People are just mean. Most people have careers and work at companies that if either disappeared tomorrow, the only suffering would be from the employees without salaries anymore.”

2. Businesses That Would Have Made It

“I think the pandemic was the nail in the coffin for A LOT of businesses that were already on the edge of just making it, and others have continued to struggle because, well, things are just more expensive.

I’ve noticed I no longer go to sit-down restaurants because my grocery bills are expensive. Why spend $40-50 for one meal when it costs $150-$200 every two weeks for groceries? It just doesn’t make sense anymore for a lot of people.”

3. Trust On The Healthcare System

I lost some trust in the present healthcare infrastructure and the conditions in which healthcare providers work.  

A user says, “The health system is wrecked. Many nurses and paramedics got burnt out and left the profession.”

4. Music Venues

“Independent/smaller/DIY music venues never really recovered.”

“This has left a void in my life. I used to go to house shows a lot as well, and those are all gone unless it’s a college band. I’m hoping it will slowly recover.”

5. People’s Desire To Live

“People’s driving is so out of wack; my only concern is to make it home in 1 piece.”

“I think it’s because people are much angrier now. The pandemic screwed so many people, so many businesses closed, more people seem to be hard on cash and job opportunities.”

6. Information About Restaurants

“Everything about fast food restaurants is now totally unpredictable. It’s impossible to know if a particular location will let you dine in, and it’s also impossible to know when they’ll even be open. ”

7. Physical Health

“Combine that with the long-term health effects of covid along with an ever more obese and chronically ill population.”

8. Mental State

“It’s insane that my social anxiety from isolation for two years and practically no contact with friends or peers in the physical world has crippled my mental state. I feel like I can’t even have conversations with people or be perceived. I’m getting better with time, but my God, it feels like I’m stuck this way predominately.”

9. Food Prices

“Food prices keep going up. We’re buying less than ever and more generic/less premium versions of everything, and yet we’re paying easily twice as much as the far more luxurious and full cart of groceries we were getting in 2010.”

10. Overnight Jobs

“Night shift people’s lives. Nothing is ever open late anymore.”

11. Connection Among People

“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.”

12. Pride For Your Job

“Essential” versus “nonessential” employees, better known as those who HAD to show up physically in person and those allowed to stay home. Most significant division in the workplace. Mentally it will never be the same in the workplace.

13. Travel and Car Prices

“Used car market is completely messed up, as are flight prices.”

“The entire hospitality industry. Up in price, the way they messed down in quality.”

14. Perception of Money

“My perception of money. I worked hard to pay off debt, save for a new house, and get promotions. With the rise of housing costs and inflation, I feel like money is a made-up thing, and I have no control over anything, even with all the right decisions.”

15. Children’s Lives

“Children’s education, mental health, coping skills, and socialization”

16. Trust

 

“Trust. I don’t trust anyone anymore. I learned that people are even dumber than my cynical brain ever imagined.”

17. Sense of Security

“The sense of security. I never know what’s around the corner anymore. It’s terrifying.”

18. Life Plans

“People’s life plans. We lost almost TWO YEARS of our lives.”

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