Since the pandemic began in 2020, we've been experiencing a lot of changes. So when Reddit user u/Disastrous-Treat0616 asked, "What is something that still hasn’t gone back to normal after the pandemic?" it made sense that a lot of people provided their own experiences. Here's some of what they had to say:
1. "Customer service in general. Pharmacy employees are staging walkouts due to understaffing, and there are endless hold times for any phone support, or just to be informed that all associates are busy and being hanged up on. Local social media is full of stories of restaurants closing drive-thrus or part of their restaurants because of employee shortages or having no backups if someone calls out. Tried to call an area business, only to find out they have outsourced customer service to a national provider who says, 'We can only give them the message. We don’t know if they read them.' It’s awful."
2. "The cost of things."
"The cost of everything has gone insane: double, triple within the space of a few years. It started with 'supply chain issues.' Obviously, they can get away with it, so it isn't going to change."
3. "Airlines: pricing, schedules, number of flights, etc."
4. "I don't know about y'all, but the sense of time is messed up. It's as if three years of my timeline are missing."
"Same. I keep getting 2021 and 2022 mixed up. Anything but the most major events could've happened either year."
5. "Twenty-four-hour stores and restaurants. There are probably way less than half the number there used to be."
6. "The way many people behave in public truly became unhinged during the pandemic and shows no signs of slowing down."
"I think this is the hardest part for me. It’s not as if anyone is okay now that the pandemic is over. I’ve had folks snap on me for no reason, the grocery store is filled with super-aggressive people pushing metal carts, and people are trying to run you off the road because they’re just mad at the world and they don’t want you to get over.
"People have changed, and I do not enjoy being out anymore. I'm always looking around for the person who’s going to lose it next."
7. "Used-car prices."
8. "These poor damn kids. I don't know what happened, but they came back to school different, and not for the better. On the bright side, the young ones coming in seem to be doing well."
"Trauma. 'You can’t see Grandma or your friends or someone will die, but you have to sit in a room with 30 people' messes with a kid.
"And then everyone pretends as if nothing happened.
"Plus, teaching as a career has reached the tipping point. There is not enough money, support, or resources for teachers to do what they’re supposed to, so a lot of people just leave.
"We had 40 years of disrespecting education in society, and now chickens have come home to roost."
9. "Places closed fitting rooms, and instead of reopening them, they just tore them out. Clothing-brand sizes differ so much, I need to be able to try them on before I buy them!"
10. "Friendships and relationships. It’s not that we don’t want to spend time together, but we all seem so collectively exhausted and isolated. I’m working hard to get out there, but we’re all just tired."
"I don’t remember ever being this isolated before. I’ve been finding different ways to cope, but I miss the times when friends were pretty much always around."
11. "Getting a doctor's appointment."
12. "My mental health."
"I can’t understand why people don’t want to acknowledge it. When I bring this up, I still get folks looking at me as if I’m being dramatic."
13. "Traffic. Traffic is all day, Monday to Friday."
14. "Buffets."
"I miss the KFC buffets, where I could get chicken, biscuits and gravy, potatoes, a pickle, and 'fluff' — that dessert stuff that I’m not sure what it’s called."
15. "The real estate market."
16. "People who flake out of commitments. It seems to be the norm now to simply not show up to things that one has committed/RSVP'd 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 (although still a bit rude, especially if there isn't any communication), 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's just okay not to 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, and I wish we could un-normalize that a little bit more."
17. "QR menus. I hate QR menus."
Since the pandemic, is there something that still hasn't gone back to normal? Tell us what it is and why in the comments below.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-888-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.