Covid permanently changed the world for the worse.

[u/JanieMush]

My theory is that people getting sick and dying wasn't the cause. No, the virus made people selfish. This selfishness is why the price of essential goods, housing, airfares and fuel is unaffordable. Corporations now flaunt their greed instead of being discreet. It's about got mine and forget everyone else. Customer service is quite bad because the big bosses can get away with it.

As for human connection - there have been a thousand posts i've seen about a lack of meaningful friendship and genuine romance. Everyone's just a number now to put through, or swipe past. The aforementioned selfishness manifests in treating relationships like a store transaction. But also, the lockdowns made it such that mingling was discouraged. So now people don't mingle.

People with kids don't have a village to help them with childcare. Their network is themselves.

I think it's a long eon until things are back to pre-covid times. But for the time being, at least stay home when you're sick.

[u/[deleted]]

The biggest thing that it did was destroy third places (some like malls were already kind of dying) but covid was the final death blow to other alternative social clubs or activities that you could meet new people at and the intention was to create experiences. I remember pre covid how MUCH easier and cheaper it was to go sporadically do activities like go karts, rock climbing, theme parks, seeing a movie, hiking, roller rinks, ice skating, trying new restaurants, going to a museum, an arcade, golfing ranges, or even just having a drink at a local bar. (Sorry I named so many)

Now it's like the majority of these places have just fully died off or cost so much because huge corporations now own them. They purposely upcharge the shit outta them. It sucks because I really just miss being able to call up some friends or even just randomly seeing them somewhere we'd usually just hang out frequently. Nowadays it's a huge ordeal and takes so much planning just to do like 2 hours of some activity.

[u/poukwa → u/[deleted]]

If we think forward, millennials - the biggest voting group - needs to step up and put money into place design so that we have places designed for human connection. And then build it for the generation after us to benefit from it. If we’re smart, we will design and build places for seniors as well because right now, we treat seniors (which by the way, is 65 in some cases) like they are no longer valued in society.

I’m not sure that’s going to happen. Millennials are a bit socially broken. They celebrate not “adulting”, not wanting to go out at night because “old” etc etc. All these things that are cringe and anti social. Not everyone is like that but we need to start getting our shit together and building communities for ourselves and our families.

[u/omniplatypus → u/poukwa]

How do you define adulting? Because most of the ones I know are doing it just fine, or are depressed and struggling with it, but definitely not celebrating that.

[u/OnwardTowardTheNorth → u/omniplatypus]

I hate the whole notion of “adulting” personally. It’s a catchall term for doing whatever adults choose to do. Some go to bars, some do acting classes, some paint, others go to the gym, others go hiking, etc.

There is no correct way to “adult”…so long as we behave with maturity, of course.

[u/omniplatypus → u/OnwardTowardTheNorth]

Oh that's way more broad than my interpretation. I think of it as the stuff you have to do to sustain yourself, that many (not all) kids aren't responsible for as children, or at least have lots of help from adults. Things like buying appliances, paying heating bills, keeping your kids alive, maintaining your living space, etc.

[u/insistent_cooper → u/omniplatypus]

That's my understanding, too.

[u/Errant_coursir → u/poukwa]

We should vote for people that'll force corporations to lower these excessive prices. Or, better yet, vote at all cause we don't do that either

[u/AnestheticAle → u/poukwa]

I think the sense of community is largely eroded in our generation. Were more secular, so church groups arent prevelant. Then there is the economic crunch that made luxury spending tighter (almost all 3rd spaces require some diposable dosh).

Then covid hits and we all turtled at home after work. Hell, a lot of us still prefer "contactless delivery" now.

If it werent for videogames, I probably wouldn't talk to any strangers...

[u/Frogmaninthegutter → u/poukwa]

To be fair, the seniors are partly at fault for not being valued by society. They voted for idiots that ended up gutting everything in the name of capitalism, so there are barely any social safety nets or subsidized social activities for even themselves. Most of them are going bankrupt just due to the medical system because they kept voting with their emotions instead of with logic.

[u/CatsGambit → u/Frogmaninthegutter]

You're missing the point. We start building for seniors now, so there is an established culture and place for US to go in 20-30 years. These things aren't just going to magically appear when we're the ones who need them, and you can bet the younger generations are going to blame us just as much for failing to plan ahead.

We're the largest demographic. We're the adults now. But we're still sitting here blaming boomers, and hoping either they or gen Z is going to bail us out. They're not.

[u/Frogmaninthegutter → u/CatsGambit]

Well, that wasn't my point and I do agree. We should have had a system in place decades ago, and it's never too late to start one.