People point out 10 things that are yet to go back to normal after the pandemic

The changes that the pandemic brought.

The COVID-19 pandemic came as an unexpected storm and shook everyone. Humanity as a whole suffered a crisis that they are sure to never forget. People are slowly making a comeback and trying to return to the way things were. But some things have been forever changed by this calamity. People and establishments, both altered themselves when faced with COVID-19 and now are facing difficulty pressing the rewind button. The existence and impact of these changes were clearly evident in the answers provided to the question posed by u/Disastrous-Treat0616, "What is something that still hasn’t gone back to normal after the pandemic?" The answers revealed how every aspect of human life took a hit during those years, from behavioral patterns, jobs and restaurants to customer service. Here are some things pointed out in the thread that are still struggling to achieve that pre-pandemic state.

1. Glory days of restaurants - forever gone?

Restaurants laid off people and then those people used that time to find other jobs. When the restaurants could reopen or reopen fully staff those former workers didn't come back. They either found a new line of work or found a better-paying job in the same industry. A restaurant chain in Chicago complained to our local news about it. The bottom line is that they were paying well below the market but tried to draw a picture that it was "people just don't want to work anymore." u/user888666777

2. Giving service face to face- thing of the past

In-person appointments for many services. u/1Monkey1Machine I tried to do a follow-up appointment with my dermatologist to avoid taking half a day off of work but they would not let me unfortunately. Since it was a follow-up to a visit for a flair-up of psoriasis, she spent less than 2 minutes in the office looking at it. I took half a day off work and drove an hour and 10 minutes to the visit from work. And then an hour and 20 minutes home. I was so mad that it couldn't be a phone call or video appointment. u/rollergirl19

3. Commitment to a meeting

People who flake out of commitments. It seems to be the norm now to simply not show up to things that one has committed/RSVPed to without a good reason and usually without any kind of communication. In some cases, it's probably not a huge deal and doesn't really impact the world but in others, people are counting on them or spending money on the assumption that they will be there and it's sort of obnoxious to just flake. Covid sort of normalized this because we were so used to people not showing up if they were exposed or symptomatic or struggling with mental health. All good reasons. However, this created the mindset that it is just okay to not show up to things in general, even without a good reason. Committing to fewer things? Completely on board with that. But committing and flaking for no good reason? Still just as rude as it was before COVID-19. u/littleirishpixie

4. Optimistic attitude

Hope. I used to somehow manage to be optimistic even at the worst of times. Now I don’t see the point, everything sucks and I just end up disappointed anyway. Hope is paralyzing now, it does more harm than good. u/mrsprinkles3 Definitely a generalized anxiety, fear, and sadness in society. This will naturally cause people to be in an almost constant fight or flight. The pandemic really kicked off a nasty chain reaction that I unfortunately don’t see slowing down anytime soon. I hope I’m wrong. u/ncknck115

5. Traditional shops

Brick-and-mortar stores. Many of the local small businesses that didn’t survive the shutdown and the ensuing economic slowdown haven’t, and probably won’t, come back. Even the shopping malls, the ones that survived, are operating with reduced staff and reduced hours because many people have shifted their shopping habits over to Amazon rather than old-school in-person shopping. Small business owners were hurt badly and haven’t fully recovered, so whenever you can, please shop local. u/Parkrang3rV2 Shopping in physical stores for things you need. Amazon used to be an occasional thing, and it was unheard of to use it for food. Covid broke through that barrier and now I use it every other day for things like aluminum foil, deodorant, dish soap, Tide, tomato paste, leggings, perfume, etc. I can't remember the last time I walked into a store to look for a specific thing. u/iwant2saysomething2

6. Mental health

The entire world's mental health? Everything seems different since and I know I speak for myself and many others when I say I’m still struggling mentally. u/Murky-Sherbet6647 For quite a few people, overall mental health. u/uncoolcat Collective mental health has been in the toilet since the pandemic. All kinds of antisocial behavior have exploded. Kids seem to be suffering the worst too, especially girls. There was just that big report in the US saying that girls in particular saw a huge drop in mental health. I work at a mental health provider and every therapist is completely booked up even when they don’t accept insurance and charge hundreds per session. u/CactusBoyScout

7. Hours of Walmart

Walmart being open 24h. My comments generally go unnoticed, but Walmart being open at all hours was a huge help and convenience for those of us who either work odd hours or simply work graveyard shifts. We could leave work at 2 or 3 in the morning and you could rely on Walmart being open. u/sundaywoods I honestly didn’t realize this until a month or two ago. I was driving home from work and thought to myself “I’ll stop at the Walmart near me and grab a 6-pack of beer” only to see that they close at 11 pm now. I’ve never been one for late-night shopping, but I always knew most, if not all Walmarts were 24 hours. Came as a surprise. u/bierandbrot

8. Food delivery

Food delivery is way bigger now than it was during the pandemic. I expected businesses like DoorDash to take a big hit after the pandemic, but nah. People still use food delivery services like that all the time now. u/nailswithoutanymilk1 The use of delivery apps taking over the food service industry. u/vegangranoluh 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 and fast-casual restaurants are leaning heavily towards take-out and delivery. u/Cyberhwk

9. Driving

Road rage incidents and bad driving have continued to be atrocious. I thought it was bad before, but it ramped up during the pandemic and it's still bad. It's like everyone is playing Grand Theft Auto in a single-player mode without care for everyone else on the roads going about their business. u/53N71N3L71 People driving sanely. u/BoredomFestival I really noticed after 2021 or so that a lot of people's phone addictions got way worse. And my theory is that is impacting driving more than we realize because half the people are also scrolling Instagram while operating a vehicle. They don’t even realize what they’re doing. u/SunshineMurphy

10. Time perception

The passage of time! I don't know if it's a false-positive as my friends are naturally getting older but we all feel this sense of disassociation. Everything before COVID-19 (BC) is like a hallucination and everything after just kind of trickles out day by day. There's no sense of the future or working towards anything. I'd think something happened last week but it actually happened months ago. u/pooey_canoe My sense of time. u/_kiss_my_grits_ Sense of time is f***ed up. Like If I skipped three years of my life. u/Aftiond75 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. u/namifo