Other than people getting sick and dying, which was awful, I really enjoyed the COVID-19 lock down. Admitting that always makes me feel like a terrible person, but it is true.
Covid hit just around the time where people around me (and myself, obviously) hit 30, got kids and settled down.
That means, covid turned into a “getting old” speed run for me. Before covid, there was something going on each weekend, a party here, a gathering of friends there, it was almost always at least something going on. When the lock down was unlocked up for real in 2022, most people had partners, didn’t want to go out anymore or do anything at all, some kids were on their way or just arrived.
It felt like a development of 5-10 years was compressed into one or two years.
On the negative side, trying to get people our after is rough. The gf still has problems understanding that yes, you can take both kids with you to run errands, shop, etc.
Staying home all day dicking around on Facebook while I do all the shopping and a good chunk of the cooking, dishes, and child rearing heh after I get home is always like dude, go outside lol.
You’re living that research paper that showed COVID-19 ages the brain 7 years. Srsly.
It was the silence for us. We were able to go out into the fields and not hear the constant background hum of distant cars. The air felt lighter and it was just my wife, my kids, the dog and me. We honestly miss those moments.
Yeah. We were in our house in Jackson Hole, Wyoming (we used to mainly live in Austin, Texas) when lockdown hit so we got to spend a lot of time in and around the mountains. We officially left Austin after that. It was too amazing in Wyoming.
And you are not alone.
Aside from the calm, less travel, planes, stuff in general we have proven we could be less of a burden on the planet if we wanted.
Then it ended.
By far the best 9 months of my life was from Feb 2020 through Nov 2020.
Happiest. Least stressed. Most productive. Healthiest. Everything. No fucking traffic! Peace! Quiet! My God… Take me back.
I got laid off a month and a half before the pandemic, so I was getting unemployment right when everyone was saying the systems were overwhelmed. And right when they were overwhelmed, I started getting the covid bonus. It was the most money I’d ever been making at that time.
I was hiking basically every day. Studying every day. Making my own meals instead of eating fast food…playing music basically every day, started a business after 8 months or so (that capitalized on companies laying off employees to contract out a remote worker using PPE funds). My drinking was at a minimum.
My weed smoking probably increased. The only negative. It was only due to free time increasing and responsibility decreasing.
Don’t forget the cleanest air in decades. The lockdowns definitely had their upsides, but we forget fast.
My local wildlife populations thrived.
Especially squirrels and skunks.
We’ll do it again in our lifetimes. The perennial contender Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza is waiting under the ring with a steel chair, and COVID is a hell of a tag team partner for all kinds of pathogens.
We’ll be told the economy can’t afford another lockdown, so people will just have to report to work and risk dying. I highly doubt most countries will do that again in the near future. Let alone people abiding it.
I really feel like that was a moment where we could have seen radical social change, but instead it just ended up being a blip when everyone made Tiktok videos. I always imagine what it would have been like if, for some unknown reason, like a massive EMP flare from the sun or something, made all digital and internet technology die.
I think the best hope for the world at this point might literally be an extremely large and direct solar event/CME. It would cause chaos and result in a lot of deaths, but it seems like the only thing that would actually radically change the suicidal trajectory global society is currently on.
I was finally able to have a long rest.
Without any impending deadlines or pressure it took me two weeks before i had the energy to work on a project.Same here but I remind myself that multiple things can be true at once just like I can feel multiple conflicting emotions or hold conflicting thoughts or opinions.
It was basically the time period where nothing happened (well, not literally nothing), and in a lot of ways, I liked that. It gave me time to focus a bit on my mental health. Life in general was on pause. It felt so… relaxing. And then the miracle wore off and we went back to life being absolute garbage.
I, weirdly, also miss some of the parasocial stuff. Radiohead putting up full concerts on YouTube every Friday. Live Twitch DJ sets with Sophie Tucker. Chatting fitness with Katee Sackhoff. That home concert by Post Malone. The list goes on and on. Some of that extended for a little after lockdown and into real life too. Sophie Tucker sent stream regulars private invites to their shows, and I remember my cousin freaking out because suddenly Katee Sackhoff was commenting on my Tweets. Then everyone went back to life as it was.
The Dropkick Murphys had a St. Patrick’s Day livestream in an empty studio, with one dude in the pit moshing for everyone, but hundreds of thousands watching from home.
I didn’t attend any of that stuff, and to be honest, I kinda wish I did. It looks so fun.
Forget about 2025. In less than two weeks we’ll know if sanity wins or if trump gets to turn the usa into a banana republic/christofacist hellhole. I’m so stressed out.
Me too, and I don’t even live in the US. He’s bad fucking news. Even if he doesn’t get in, there is a non zero chance Don Jr or Eric are next up for the ticket in 2029
I’m more worried about Tucker Carlson running.
Been worried about it since like 2015.
Live action Civil War (2024) reenactment.
I’m glad that movie used Texas and California teaming up because it’s so unlike anything going on right now politically.
If y’all haven’t seen it I highly recommend it. It’s more of a movie about being a war journalist than about anything political. They don’t even really drive into the why because it’s not important for the plot.
I think the movie is quite explicit about the why, just not overt, they mention the president dismantling the FBI, i believe drone striking US citizens, Jesse Plemons character is clearly acting by the racist status quo.
My point is those moments of exposition are very few and far between. We see the culmination of it but not the lead up. They don’t show the dismantling of the FBI, it’s just not relevant.
WWIII now with extra orange nuclear bombs.
If voting changed anything, they’d make it illegal.
I feel like it’s Starwars time where everything is referred before or after Yavin or in relation to the old and new republic. Right now we are entering Pandemic+5 or like 5COVID or something.
We’re not in 2025 CE (Common Era), we’re in 5 CE (COVID Era)
12024 Human Era.
Thank you Kurzgesagt calendars.
I actually am as cool as I thought I would be as a kid when asked what I think I would be like in 2025.
Unfortunately, what other people think is cool has changed dramatically.
Is being kinky cool yet? That’s the only chance I have.
Depends on the kink. Leather, whips, and paddles? Always been at least a little cool. Electroplay? Very cool.
Diaper play? To each their own, but not cool.
I am scared to Google “electroplay”.
I was offered a COVID shot at my physical today and I still felt the need to ask if they had enough in supply lol
Honestly, sounds like one of those made up sci-fi dates.
Terminator 2’s plot starts in 2029.
AI seems to be tracking nicely.
Or so inept I’m utterly unconcerned, I can’t tell
AI will decide to kill humanity not because it views it as a threat, but because some guy on reddit made a joke about AI killing humanity.
Sam Altman is ensuring it. Still waiting for the Connors to show up
The first quarter of the 21st century is over.
…Did you have fun?!
Right? Where the fuck is my flying car and why am I not living in a domed city on the moon like Disneyworld promised me?!
They even got flying cars in the Blade Runner crapsack world.
I never held any real hope for the flying car, and always thought the moon cities were predicted way earlier than would be feasible.
The real question is where. is. my. god damn. hoverboard!?
If we’re going to be serious about it, I think flying cars are a terrible idea. Even if they’re done entirely on autopilot and have some sort of automatic spherical crash avoidance system that works 100% of the time, machines can fail catastrophically. I’d hate to be in that flying car if the engine goes out. Or underneath it on the ground.
And as far as moon cities, we have no idea if it’s even possible to successfully gestate a fetus in the moon’s lower gravity and radiation is a massive problem, so I don’t hold out much hope for those either.
And when it comes to a hoverboard? I’d fall off and crack my head open.
Oh well. Maybe this future has a few things going for it after all. You’re very unlikely to have a flying Dodge Ram fall on your house.
Very unlikely, but not impossible
I enjoyed lockdown tbh
Best thing that ever happened to me.
I learned who I was. A lot about living and a little about love.
Slightly unrelated but this is an awesome picture that I’d love to have a print of. Does anybody know the author or source?
This isn’t something new or unique. Up until 2015ish whenever people referenced 10 years ago people would think it was referring to the 90’s. It’s a perception of time thing. Eventually the same will happen when we are out of the 20’s they’ll think 2020 was eons ago.
Out… of the 20s… legitimately seems unfathomable.
Today’s date is March 1,697 2020.
In the year 2025
I hope we can survive
If Trump is still alive
We may find…the end of mankind
I wish we can rewind…
I know people are gonna say it’s all relative and we all see the past through a golden lens, but tbf the last major genocide was in the 90s, so a whole new population of young people are getting to witness the deepest horrors of humanity in all its glory, and in 4k UHD thanks to the evolution of technology.
Imagine telling someone 30 years ago that we’d be getting DIY video guides on how to survive in a combat zone, or being able to easily access a massive amount of media showing people getting shot, bombed, stabbed, sliced, and burned alive for existing.
Don’t you all love the future.
on the other hand we have monopolies that track our ever movement and live in surveillance states.
Pretty much…
Honestly at this point, I’m not even sure how I’m not dead yet. I crave the afterlife.
You are that rock?
…because that rock is about to fuck up that whale’s whole year.
That’s a Sea Lion
Ahhhhh
Sea Lion’s are known for their dorsal fin
after the pandemic
Oh boy, do I have news for you! (The pandemic has not yet ended)
