Not Everything Is Back to Normal After the COVID-19 Pandemic — Internet Weighs In

You all know that we here at Distractify are obsessed with TikTok. The amount of aimless rabbit holes we have gone down since joining the app is embarrassing to admit. Like, we didn't know we needed to know about the beef between social media influencers Tessa and Meche, yet here we are.

But we can't forget about our roots. Millennials will remember the Reddit rabbit holes that we went down once upon a time. Our personal favorites are learning about all the hot tea in the lives of people we don't even know.

Now one sub-Reddit is asking what things aren't back to normal after the COVID-19 pandemic. Let's unpack the answers.

The sub-Reddit "Ask Reddit" is "the place to ask and answer thought-provoking questions." One person posed the question, "What is something that still hasn’t gone back to normal after the pandemic?" That's definitely a loaded question!

So far there are 17,000 and counting comments. The responses are starting quite the conversations. One person commented, "A lot of places that reduced services for 'health and safety' seem to have decided it saves too much money to bring back. Many hotels aren't doing daily service, fast-casual restaurants are leaning heavily towards take-out and delivery."

This comment alone started its own thread of people discussing the places that have reduced their services. Abbiethedog mentions pharmacies, and how other companies' "customer service" has gone out the window. She also mentions restaurants having to close due to a lack of workers, which is another long-term effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lots of people are commenting about inflation and "the cost of things." One person said, "I'm surprised this isn't higher up. The cost of everything has gone insane. Double, triple within the space of a few years."

Namifo wrote, "I don't know about y'all but the sense of time is messed up. It's like 3 years of my timeline is missing." We feel this comment deep in our core. Psychologists have actually done research about the phenomenon that is called "the pandemic skip."

Others answer is simply "the people." Doc_g3 wrote, "The way many people behave in public truly became unhinged during the pandemic and shows no signs of slowing down." Smooth-Question-3069 agreed and said, "They became unhinged and hateful and unpredictable... it's only gotten worse from there."

MoneroMaestro wrote, "Tip function on EVERY debit machine... Like McDonald's of booster Juice." THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE. When do we need to tip and when do we not need to tip? We're so confused. Also the juxtaposition of McDonalds and a juice place is hilarious.

Our favorite comment has to be, "My mental health." LOL. Same. We have been on a #journey since the COVID-19 pandemic with high highs and low lows. But that's life baby... right?

Our answer to the question would probably be the sense of awareness we have to have about the places we go. For example, let's say we're bridesmaids in a wedding coming up. With COVID-19 still being present, we probably would lay low the week or so before as a precaution. And then on the flip side, knowing we were at a wedding, we might want to take a COVID-19 test before going to visit our grandparents, again as a precaution.

All this is to say that life definitely isn't back to normal, but we're all trying to make the most of it in the meantime.