A Florida State University College of Medicine study of the after-effects of COVID lockdowns, masking, social distancing, etc., suggests that children may have sustained long-term “personality changes,” making them “moodier, more prone to stress, less cooperative, and less responsible…” (https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/10/fauci-effect-study-finds-young-adults-moodier-prone-stress-less-cooperative-less-responsible-following-faucis-pandemic-rules/). Other than that, it was fine.
These changes, warned the researchers, might be permanent. Gee, thanks, Dr. Fauci! The lockdowns may have “disrupted maturity.” We thought college was already doing that.
Somehow it’s gotten to the point where even when it’s honestly trying to help, government just does nothing right. It’s like the biggest favor they can do for us is just to let us alone, stop messing with our lives.
I think we can count ourselves lucky that the Monkey Pox scare has already petered out.
It’s not just kids whose personalities changed. I know a number of grownups who turned into paranoid hypochondriacs and are still unlike their previous selves.
Are they still wearing masks indoors at home?
I don’t know, because they don’t visit or have visitors indoors. Some still wear masks in church. I know one otherwise brilliant woman who still won’t eat indoors at restaurants. And some still flinch from anyone touching them or even getting close to them. I do see too many people still wearing masks in stores and even walking by themselves outside with no one within a block of them.
They love those masks–the most dramatic thing that ever happened to them.
I focused on the masks because you’d asked about them. But there’s more change than continued mask-wearing. A lot of people are less spontaneous, somewhat touchier, generally less connected with each other in many ways. Also, I’ve noticed a kind of amnesia in many people about what life was like before the lockdowns — or even a kind of mild horror at the thought of it. In particular, they’re suddenly afraid of *any* illness, as though no one was ever sick before covid. The whole personality in these people has changed. The mask wearing is only an extreme manifestation of the change.
Another thing I’ve noticed is a lingering palms-up attitude–it’s like many people have forgotten how to work. It’s hard to describe. Would “the blahs” be accurate?
I think that schoolchildren are an interesting study, but only the tip of the iceberg. The lockdowns have made some long-term changes, some may be good, and others perhaps not so good.
A lot of work is now done remotely. In my case, it makes little difference, because nearly everything I do is accomplished remotely over the Internet. I can work on a computer in Europe or Asia from home, just as easily as I can from an office. I probably visit either the office, or the co-located computers roughly twice a month. So, for my specific job, working from home makes a lot of sense, and leaves me more time and energy to expend on productive tasks, than I would have were I commuting. There are times that I miss the interaction I had with coworkers, when everyone was at the office, but that interaction had virtually nothing to do with my actual work. I am the only employee in this hemisphere that works in my specialty, so in-person collaboration isn’t possible for my role. In my case, nothing is lost by the fact that I work remotely.
However, even before the lockdown, the business world was changing drastically. Pre-lockdown, international phone calls were commonplace, and many people at the management level spend almost all of their time in conference calls, in meeting after meeting. That’s just the reality of business, in our day. The complexity of business has made for a situation where it requires the contribution of numerous specialties to make effective decisions. Meetings are actually easier to arrange using video conferencing tools, etc. I have a meeting tomorrow with someone in Europe, which can be accomplished easily with two laptop computers and an Internet connection.
Such collaboration was already happening before the lockdown, but the lockdown made such tools indispensable, but it also made it all but impossible to go back to the old situation. Beyond that, for many businesses, it is no longer necessary to lease enough office space for an entire workforce. Returning to the old paradigm would hit the bottom line, and hit it hard, for companies that have downsized. The world has changed. It’s the lockdown, but it’s also the technological tools that have given us new ways of working.
Perhaps confining this discussion to the realm of the workplace, or public schools, is a mistake. People, all people, need interaction with others. I’m hardly a social butterfly, but I know that I need to be around people. I live close to a small town, and when I go to the supermarket, at least some of the employees know me by name, likewise for the bank. That seems trivial, but it’s pleasant to be recognized in a friendly manner.
If you compare our current world, the the “Leave It To Beaver” years, much as changed. Our modern world doesn’t have as many local cafes, small retail businesses, etc. For someone living in a large metropolitan area, these days, life can be all but anonymous. The lockdown was just one more straw on the camel’s back.
Well, my job has had me working at home for 20 years… You’d think that would free up people for more human interactions, not less. But then many people don’t know what to do with their time.
There is value in water cooler talk, but since the lockdown, I’m not even sure that is a thing, anymore. The lockdown forced businesses to streamline, and, metaphorically speaking, where the water cooler once stood, there is now only an imprint on the carpeting. While I am not of the opinion that the response to COVID 19 was particularly effective, it changed the world, and the effects of this will be felt for some time to come.
Most of them don’t seem to have been good effects. Are some of these people going to wear masks as long as they live?
Apparently.