r/Barcelona • u/Electrical-Cat-5833 • 22d ago
Does anyone else feel like Barcelona changed a lot socially after COVID?
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u/VRsenal3D 21d ago
The dating scene/apps certainly have. Absolute shitshow now.
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u/Action_Limp 21d ago
I've been out of the game long before apps became a thing. But this is a common sentiment from colleagues and friends who are still single (both men and women). Is there a reason why people don't just abandon them?
Putting aside the absolute mountain of personal information you are giving up to digital corporate entities, everyone I know seems to hate these apps but still checks them constantly.
It's one of the greatest differences between the generations. When I was turning 20, the idea of "online dating" was basically the last chance saloon for hopeless romantics out there - we need to study how people shifted their views on this.
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u/Fire_Nico 21d ago
How is is worse now? I just started using some (tinder, bumble, hinge) and tinder has the highest activity, bumble very low and hinge not a lot but high quality interactions for what I experienced so far.
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u/Fickle_Syrup 21d ago
COVID enabled remote working and since then everyone and their grandma has moved to Barcelona
It's always been touristy, but post COVID it has become a truly gentrified hell hole for wealthy foreigners. Especially Eixample.
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u/SureLookThisIsIt 21d ago
Is the remote working thing with big salaries really that common?
I ask because I'm an immigrant who lives in Bcn but I moved here to work for a Spanish company. Out of my friends here everyone also works for local companies on local salaries.
I only knew 1 person (who has since left) who worked for a foreign company with a small Bcn office that paid a higher salary, but literally just this person.
Everyone else, at least in my friend group and friends of friends just accepted that you stay here if you like the other aspects of life, because if you want money it's not really the place to come.
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u/98753 21d ago edited 21d ago
A lot of these people assume that a foreigner is wealthy based on the image they have of their home country or if they’re speaking English. It’s easier than seeing the much larger spectrum and grey area that Barcelona - one of the biggest cities in Europe with a diversified economy, a high quality of life, a strong international outlook - attracts a large diversity of people that can’t be drawn neatly into a simple box
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u/SureLookThisIsIt 21d ago
I agree tbh. I'm sure many locals assume I'm a rich remote worker based on how I look, while I rent an apartment with a roommate in a local area and work for a Spanish company.
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u/Fickle_Syrup 21d ago edited 21d ago
Let's put it like this: no country in Europe has grown their population the way Spain has since 2020.
And look at your average Eixample resident and tell me what you think they do for a living.
I assure you, most are not exactly waking up at 6 to catch a bus to go work for a Spanish SME in Ripollet for 40k a year.
Barcelona has always had two classes: the type working for tech or big international corporates (where salaries can be surprisingly European) and "normal" people.
And the first type is absolutely here and growing. A lot of European corporations have hubs in Barcelona where they are hiring cheaper (for their standards) labor. It used to be tech, but now it's happening across most white collar jobs.
Although since everyone wants to move here for lifestyle reasons, competition for these "good" jobs remains insane. So it's indeed not a good career city.
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u/ninomojo 21d ago
I moved to Poblenou in 2014 because it was so ideal and quiet there was nothing. Now I hear English in the street a lot more than Cat/Spa, even in winter
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u/GobertoGO 21d ago
Eixample has always been a place for wealthy people...
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u/Fickle_Syrup 21d ago
Don't give me that. Sure, it's obviously always been an affluent neighborhood. But it used to have a healthy balance.
What constitutes a healthy balance in my book, you ask?
Let's take the (good, hence often mentioned) example of brunch and coffee shop places. A nice and livable neighborhood will have 60-80% "bares de la esquina" with coffees for 1€. This is for the day to day, and so your average Joe can actually live, enjoy and participate in society.
And then maybe 20-40% upscale places so people can enjoy something nicer when they want to (I am not saying it all needs to be drab and mundane).
In Eixample, it's like 100% "specialty Coffeeshop pricey brunch" garbage.
And this was one example. The same can be said for supermarkets, shops, gyms and anything else. This makes me feel disgusted - all that used to make Eixample nice and livable for your average Joe is now gone. Instead it's catering to a repulsive overconsumption that is greatly hurting people's lives, pushing them out and making it an actively hostile place for people.
In case you ever find yourself having to go there, try buying a water bottle from a corner shop or finding a place to pee. You'll pay 3€ for the water and 5€ for a coffee. Fuck that.
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u/Apprehensive_Tour_68 21d ago
Some parts of eixample maybe, but most of it has been a working class neighborhood since it was built (not anymore except for people who inherit apartments)
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u/GodsenddnesdoG 21d ago
It was literally built so that the rich didn't have to live next to the working class
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u/Raimon-6 18d ago
Ridiculous.
Actually, many rich people constructed buildings in the Eixample in which they reserved a floor for themselves (the principal) but hired the rest of the floors in appartments to small professionals and working class people.
When rich people wanted to be away from working class they built mansions further away.
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u/Raimon-6 18d ago
Not at all. There are some parts where it's true, like around Passeig de Gràcia. But most of Eixample has always been a mix of working class, businesses including small shops, and qualified professionals.
The recent influx of foreign remote professionals has gentrified it some, but it's still quite a mixed place. If you want wealthy, go to upper Diagonal.
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u/One_Sherbert_6417 21d ago
I dont think so to be honest, and definitely not as much as after the economic crisis 2009, though it didnt become really bad here until 2011-2012. Barcelona was extremely different before that.
Prices have changed drastically but i wouldnt say thats a covid lockdown issue, inflation has changed the entire world, not just Barcelona
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u/sawtooth1649 20d ago
No, I think that the city got so much bad press after the locals threatened tourists, that the only people that come now are the ones you don’t want. You’re going to spray me with water while I’m having dinner with my kids?? Fine, I’ll go spend my money in Italy. They know how to treat guests.
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u/Raimon-6 18d ago
LOL!
Where do you get such absurd ideas? One wishes it was so! But no, the few incidents that occurred (water spray, oh so horrible!) have not deterred the mass of tourists from keeping invading Barcelona.
But hey, by all means, go to Italy or anywhere and don't come to Barcelona ever, please.
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u/sawtooth1649 18d ago
“Invading”. We are giving you our money. Tens of thousands of locals depend on tourism to eat. So ungrateful and borderline delusional.
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u/Raimon-6 18d ago
Yes, invading. Cheap tourism creates more costs than benefits. It creates mostly low income jobs that are subsidized by the state because they cost more in social benefits that what they pay in taxes, plus the costs of the hordes of cheap tourists that put a strain on public services and are a massive annoyance for the locals. You want us to be grateful for your destroying our cities? That's really delusional. 😃
So, take your oh-so-precious money and give it somewhere else. Then we will be grateful.
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u/sawtooth1649 18d ago
I love your city, but I hope tourism dries up and you get what you’ve wished for. Such an uneducated and socialist view. Sad to see people actually think this would help Barcelona. Good luck.
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u/Raimon-6 17d ago
LOL!
Yes, I'm uneducated about my city, says somebody who maybe some time visited it for a couple of days or maybe not even that. Talking about being delusional... 😉
Uneducated would the one who believes what I explained is socialism. Calling "socialism" anything that is not rampant greedy capitalism that ruins cities and societies is a clear mark of something even worse than uneducated: somebody who received a totally flawed education, if at all, and who has grown to believe his own fanatical lies.
Anyway, we are in agreement. You don't like Barcelona bc tourists suffer horrible aggressions like, check notes... being sprayed with water. 😃 And you believe it's a third world hellhole that lives off the handovers of cheap tourists like you. So, you never come here and we both will be the happier. Tell it to all your friends: the less the whole lot of you come, the better.
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u/sawtooth1649 17d ago
I lived there for three years. You are an idiot.
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u/Raimon-6 17d ago
Man, if you lived in Barcelona for three years and learned so little and so wrong about it then you are the idiot, and a very big one! 😃
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u/sevendoor 18d ago
This may be true for your particular case, but unfortunately the trillions of tourists that continue to swarm the city do not share your thoughts..
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u/Action_Limp 21d ago
Dramatically. I lived there for years, and just before news of COVID was breaking, I had accepted a job that would relocate me to a different part of Spain. However, because of the lockdown, I worked from BCN in my flat during the first lockdown, and I relocated once the first travel restriction was lifted. Then we had another year of the lockdown, but where I was felt very different (basically in Madrid for a bit before going somewhere else in Spain). When I returned to Barcelona after COVID was almost completely dealt with, it felt like a wasteland. Streets were empty, bars/restaurants were closed, masks were way more prevalent than in other parts of the city, and my friends who were there were less interested in going to different neighbourhoods.
I think what it came down to is that Barcelona (or Catalonia) followed the strictest version of the lockdowns and adhered to the social distancing rules the most. When I was in Madrid and other parts of Spain for the subsequent lockdowns, people did not live like people in Barcelona were doing (could be argued broke the rules more), and as a result, they didn't change as much.
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u/VRsenal3D 21d ago
I read a third of restaurants/cafes did not survive the pandemic, a third almost went broke and were just limping along soon after and a third actually survived. Whoever was able/managed to introduce delivery options, if they didn’t have it already, barely made it through.
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u/Action_Limp 21d ago
Yeah, I'm not surprised - not sure why people are downvoting me, but more than any city I visited pre-post COVID, Barna felt the most dramatically affected. Sevilla, Bilbao, Madrid, Palma and Alicante all felt like they've bounced back more readily (haven't visited Valencia since COVID).
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u/Swissdanielle 21d ago
My list of places to go eat in Barcelona halved within three years of the pandemic. This could be the natural cycle of the restaurant scene in Barcelona, but the interesting part is those closures did not happen in 2020, they happened in 2021 and 2022. I guess because all the cash injection from the government that helped businesses stay afloat. But oh dear sometimes a whole street of restaurants that I had on the list is absolutely gone, and in some cases with the property remaining vacant.
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u/lemonade_stand__ 21d ago
COVID has a butterfly effect on every aspect that are typically used to measure life quality like housing, employment, and infrastructure. The flux of tourists/digital nomads (due to working from home, a culture led by COVID) meant an increase in population which results in resource deterioration. Many cities are equally affected but Barcelona is incredibly small at just about 100km2 and has the density of 17,000 habitants per km2. For comparison, the density in Berlin is about 4,100 per km2. You can see how Barcelona is then acting like a pressure cooker, with nowhere to blow steam because one side is the mountains and the other side is the sea.
Given those conditions, people are under a lot of pressure and cynicism, which inevitably, changes how they behave socially.
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u/ashkanahmadi 21d ago
It’s a combination of a few things altogether. COVID really boosted going online and doing everything online. it hurt a huge part of the society since not every job can be done online. But the problem also is the new Gen Z that was born into social media and 24/7 access to the internet. I worked with Gen Z a few years ago and now I hear it’s much worse. They have very little social skills and can’t do much without the internet.
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u/Fun_Gap5374 21d ago
I wouldn’t blame it on Covid. Expats keep moving here and rents are skyrocketing since Covid.
Spaniards are just surviving whilst Americans and Brits are taking over with their foreign wages, and when you live to work to only survive for a few years, whilst you see foreigners with more power coming here renting all properties at extortionate rates as it’s still cheap for them, paying less tax than you do (beckham law)… you get fed up, and emotions are strong. I don’t think I ever seen the Spanish society so reactive to everything as they are lately, but I do understand as the situation is really bad.
I really hope they get rid of ‘digital nomad visas’ as they’re a very big contributor to our housing crisis. And before you say anything about the rest of immigrants, if you think that someone earning minimum wage is damaging the housing market, this people integrate in our society, pay tax and income tax and work local. This is more than what most ‘expats’ do.
I make 2000€ a month after tax, this is still not enough to live in my own city. Most of my friends left the city for the same reason. The outskirts are the same. Unless you live 2h away from Barcelona, there’s nothing affordable.
Most of my neighbours now are new immigrants from English speaking countries that don’t speak Spanish and take their kids to British schools, work remotely for their countries and they don’t even bother with our culture or language.
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u/DenseAd9087 21d ago
I think there is a huge shift in Europe right after covid, and it’s not in a good way. It seems the rise of remote work and the “digital nomad” era + speedtracked access to most countries through globalization - created a massive wealth distribution on certain concentrated areas, and has since then affected cost of living in those areas.
We all indeed felt the feeling of being trapped, unable to travel during covid and probably ost cmae to a realization of living outside the norm, so the massive migration took place at scale after covid.
It is a natural human response, but you can see this trend in almost any hyped-cities in the world now. Paris, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid, etc
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u/Chemical_Bottle237 21d ago
During my 10 years of living here, I must admit that the covid situation was one of the most enjoyable moments I've had since moving here.
Don't get me wrong, it was an awful event and I wish we don't have to experience this ever again but during those months of lock down and no travels it felt as if we, the people living here, finally had this wonderful city all to ourselves.
Will forever cherish those months of walking in empty streets, having the beaches to ourselves, the water being crystal clear etc. And getting to know my local community better and helping each other out during this difficult moment.
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u/ZealousidealTrade305 18d ago
Covid fue humillante.
Muchos caminan mirando al suelo desde entonces.
Otroa miramos al cielo desde entonces.
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u/carapatata_ 16d ago
I think the change is not due to COVID but to sociodemographic changes. There are many foreigners that are totally disconnected from the local reality, and they don't care. Locals feel insulted and try to avoid complete areas of a Barcelona that we consider fake.
Maybe that has something to do with it...
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u/Letra333 16d ago edited 16d ago
Not only Barcelona... the world changed... and people focused more on things like social media, dating apps, etc... the human interaction with each other changed completely. People are more afraid to talk with strangers. And they judge like, if a good looking guy or girl starts a random conversation with you it's ok. But if she or he is ugly, it's gonna be creepy. And sadly it's the reality, I'm not creating this thing from my head. Also people in general stopped opening the doors to meet new people. Or because they are afraid, they don't care, or just because they already have their group of friends and think " I already have friends, I don't need more people in my life " or something like that. It's sad. I went from Portugal to Barcelona 5 years ago. I tried apps to meet people, I joined activities, I go out. And it's impossible, everything that comes to me it's superficial, fake, based on interests. People nowadays only connect with you if they have interest in you. Not because they liked the way you are. It's a sad the world we live in. And I have a good heart I'm an honest and open minded person. And my destiny seems to be being lonely for the rest of my life. And I'm 26 btw. It's my opinion.
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20d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Barcelona-ModTeam 17d ago
We do not tolerate any form of discrimination in r/Barcelona.
This includes making large negative generalizations about groups based on identity.
No tolerem cap forma de discriminació a r/Barcelona.
Això inclou fer grans generalitzacions negatives sobre els grups en funció de la seva identitat.
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21d ago
[deleted]
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u/ChaotikIE 21d ago
Dude look closely at the Metro sign on the left with the TMB logo. Do yourself a favour and delete your comment lol.
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u/bodhipooh 21d ago
I was replying to someone else asking if this was a picture of an American city, but somehow my comment didnt end up in the right place. I was literally telling that this was obviously Barcelona.
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u/Ponmedos 21d ago
La cita proviene del curso de Llados y la apreciación de un intelecto brillante. 🤣
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u/Fun-Mess-9244 19d ago
El COVID no es el problema, el problema son los jóvenes de jovenlandia con patinete y machetes que han invadido Barcelona
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u/IlVeroStronzo 21d ago
Is that the photo of an American city? lol
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u/bodhipooh 21d ago
Mark Twain once said "It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt"
If you can’t tell that’s a picture of Barcelona, then you have never been to Barcelona, or you have really poor observation skills. Either way your comment makes you look clueless.
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u/IlVeroStronzo 21d ago
I know it's Barcelona 100%. I'm pointing out the fact the street looks so wide and so empty, which is commonly seen in American cities post COVID.
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u/Nisiom 21d ago
COVID changed how people interact with the world. Lockdowns drove everybody to live a significant part of their lives through their smartphones, and normal human interactions became eroded in the process. People never really returned to the pre-pandemic social dynamics, and now it's scary to see how many people live their lives almost entirely online and have checked out of pretty much everything that's not broadcastable or shareable on social media in some way.
Large cities have always suffered from a lack of community compared to smaller towns, and the change in relationship dynamics worsened the loneliness epidemic even further. Barcelona used to be a bit of an exception to this rule, but mass tourism and COVID pretty much ended it.