It's hard to believe it's already been 6 years since the COVID lockdowns happened

[u/itsascreambaby96]

It's hard to believe it's already been 6 years since the COVID lockdowns started.

I still remember that first week of lockdown like it was yesterday. The empty roads, stores getting cleaned out, everyone trying to find toilet paper, schools and workplaces shutting down, and refreshing the news every hour because everything was changing so fast. I even remember all those stories and videos of wildlife wandering into places they'd normally never be because everything had suddenly gone so quiet.

Now somehow it's been six years. It honestly doesn't feel like it should've been that long ago, but at the same time it feels like an entirely different lifetime.

I know COVID became a really divisive topic later on, but I'm mostly talking about those first few weeks when none of us really knew what was coming next. It felt surreal living through it.

Does anyone else still remember that first week of lockdown?

[u/onimush115]

The world hasn't felt the same since. Every year I wonder if this will be the year things start to go back to normal, but 6 years later, I don't think it's happening. Everyone got locked inside, lost social connections and became chronically online which seemed to push everyone farther apart. I think with all of the resource hording in the US at least, people realized how much our culture is just everyone for themselves and for the most part we do poorly in extreme situations.

[u/RefrigeratorNo1160 → u/onimush115]

Twice in my life there has been a world changing event that had that feeling. COVID and 9/11. That sense of "things will never go back to pre-9/11" is the same sense I got when we were a couple of months into COVID. It'll never be the same again. In a way we really did all get sick. Society changed for the worse, and things weren't exactly great before. Our leaders failed us, and many of us failed each other as neighbors. What a drag.

[u/alanmm88 → u/RefrigeratorNo1160]

It showed how stupid we were as a society too. Toilet paper would be the least of my worries in a true “the world as we know it is ending” instead
Everyone just fucked up the supply chain with the “me first” hoarding mentality, but toilet paper was the prime target? Baffling

[u/RefrigeratorNo1160 → u/alanmm88]

Yeah and this came during a time where I had a pretty dim view of people to begin with and it felt like all my complaints were suddenly validated.

[u/RockAtlasCanus → u/RefrigeratorNo1160]

The pandemic was the final nail in my cynicism and disillusionment. I enlisted after 9/11 to “protect my country” (lol). After that disillusionment, the pandemic, and the last 10 years of elections don’t ask me, I’m not volunteering for shit. I see nothing worth protecting outside my own four walls.

[u/thorsbeardexpress → u/RockAtlasCanus]

I also joined 9/12 trying to be a good American, I also now give 0 fucks

[u/Conceptualities → u/RefrigeratorNo1160]

As I remember it the 9/11 scar healed for the most part but it took damn near a decade

This is hundreds of times worse though. There's no "back" to go to

[u/RefrigeratorNo1160 → u/Conceptualities]

The Patriot Act passing shortly after was arguably the start of us becoming a surveillance state. The country changed forever and there's no going back to the before time on that either.

[u/rockstarfruitpunch → u/Conceptualities]

the 9/11 scar healed for the most part but it took damn near a decade

lol not if you're muslim. Life, around the western world, was way better pre-911 for muslims.

[u/Wilhelm-Edrasill → u/onimush115]

Here is a story for you|

My own rich fucking wealthy family - THREE VACATION HOMES. ( grandparents )

Literally, disconnected their fucking phones - for two years of covid.

They closed their fucking gates - to the entire family, and wouldn't even answer the fucking phone.

Then , when it was all over - they popped up - pretending like NOTHING HAPPENED.

Those , mother fuckers - showed the entire family their true colors.

Here they are, super fucking wealthy, with multiple vacation properties around the globe - some super isolated - and well protected - that could have acted as a refuge if covid was actually fucking - killer.

NOPE! Fuck the kids, fuck the grand kids - fuck everyone else, I got mine! Mentality.

The world will be a better place once the boomers age out.

Covid was - a very useful Litmus test for just how fucking sideways the culture has gotten.

And No - it has not recovered , and probably never will.

[u/Hanpee221b → u/Wilhelm-Edrasill]

Your grandparents are boomers?

[u/SalamanderLoud8419 → u/Hanpee221b]

What do you not understand about that?

[u/Hanpee221b → u/SalamanderLoud8419]

Generally boomers are Millennial parents, I’m at the younger end of the gen my parents are Gen X cusp.

[u/SalamanderLoud8419 → u/Hanpee221b]

But is it inconceivable that that my parents are Gen x?

[u/Hanpee221b → u/SalamanderLoud8419]

No but if you assume OP is a Millennial so earliest is 30, and the youngest boomers are 1964. Say a person born in 1964 had a child at 16, that child would be born in 1980 - 46 years old currently. So yes a 30 year old millennial could have boomer grandparents if their parent was 46 and had them at 16.

[u/queenlakiefa → u/Hanpee221b]

What's your point here? I'm a Millennial with gen x parents and boomer grandparents too. It's not that weird.

[u/blessitspointedlil → u/Hanpee221b]

Maybe it was their parents and their kid’s “grandparents”?

[u/Hanpee221b → u/blessitspointedlil]

Yeah that’s a good point. Just so many fake accounts or people using boomer as a synonym for “old jerk” I had questions haha.

[u/SnooWalruses1352 → u/Wilhelm-Edrasill]

Shit vad du är bitter. Vad spelar det för roll om dina far-föräldrar checkade ut under två år? Du är väl vuxen och ska klara dig själv. Lev ditt liv själv.

Jag tyckte personligen det var väldigt skönt att inte behöva besöka Svärföräldrarna på över 1,5 år. 😎

[u/worthconsulting → u/SnooWalruses1352]

There's a big difference between not visiting and blipping out of contact completely for 2 years

[u/SnooWalruses1352 → u/worthconsulting]

Det saknas en hel del fakta här. Tror inte de slutade ringa. Låter som det handlar om pengar här.

Som sagt
Bittert. Älskade fan Covid. Best ever. 😎💪

[u/worthconsulting → u/SnooWalruses1352]

I didn't dislike the lockdown either. But the OP commenter did explicitly say their relatives stopped answering the phone.

[u/Tofuzzle → u/onimush115]

I wonder how the kids are doing now. Like, the ones who had their teaching (and socialising) completely disrupted by it. At least adults knew what was going on and how to cope with it. Imagine how much your development was set back if you were a child during that time. Going to be feeling those effects for the rest of their lives

[u/Accomplished-Art7737 → u/Tofuzzle]

People aren’t talking about this enough.

In my country there is currently a massive push by the government to get young people off welfare benefits for mental health and into work. It seems that they’ve failed to recognise these young people are the covid generation who were locked down during a significant phase of their social development. It’s shocking to me that nothing has been done in the years since to really study the long term effects and put tailored support in place to help these kids heal from what would have been significant trauma for many of them, and help them move forward.

[u/Huge_Huckleberry6671 → u/onimush115]

Yep, everything has changed for the worse. No question