Recently, I came across a post from Reddit user mrvlad_throwaway on the popular Ask Reddit page asking, "What HASN'T felt the same since 2020?" And I thought the answers were so interesting — and so relatable — that I just had to share. So, here are some of the best:
1. "Prices, of course."
2. "Perception of time. It's like everything stopped in 2020. Then suddenly time overcorrected and sped way the fuck up."
3. "Stores used to be open later, and you had 24/7 options. The whole thing ended in 2020 when they shut down. It's starting to slowly get better again."
4. "Social decency. People have gotten meaner."
—u/dbarila
5. "Going out. High prices, low quality, and people are done trying. Going out has become more of a chore than genuine fun!"
6. "Movie theaters. Wish people would shut up and put their phones away again."
7. "Work. We were all faced with the fact that a lot of it is only for show because of COVID. It's hard to accept that dressing up in business attire and going into the office is anything more than superficial after having experienced an alternative that worked well."
8. "Since 2020, I feel like more and more people are chronically online, in the sense that community is just not there anymore. People go outside and do things just to post them online. Everything is fast-paced."
9. "I live in a small area, and I have noticed lately that whenever I leave my house, there are just TONS of people everywhere. No grocery store has a parking spot. Cars all over the road. Yet stores aren’t open? Restaurants don't take walk-ins? You can't get a hair appointment without planning it for months? I just don’t know where all these people are going literally at all hours of the day. I feel kind of weird, but something feels off, and my pattern recognition is tingling."
10. "People. Didn't realize how much so many of them suck."
11. "Friendships. It's like everyone got used to social media being the #1 communication method during the pandemic, only for it to become boring enough that, over time, people actually stopped communicating on it. Despite endless attempts to make plans, many people I used to call friends are now nothing more than eyes on a feed, and it's sad."
12. "Decency. I would have never in my life thought the President of the United States would post an AI video of himself shitting on Americans via social media."
13. "Penn tennis balls. They have universally gotten worse. I have opened entire cans that had no bounce right out of the can. Doesn't matter where you get them from... Costco, Tennis Warehouse. They just suck now."
14. "Stores are still running skeleton crews that can't keep up with business."
15. "I swear people in general have gotten dumber with a lack of critical thinking skills and mistrust of the scientific method. They are also easily influenced and overly emotional."
16. "Weekends. My group of friends used to hang out at least once every weekend. Now we're lucky when we see each other once a month."
—u/Moaoziz
17. "$20."
18. "How people move about in public. It used to be so much smoother. Since everyone came out of lockdown, it's like they forgot how to exist with other people. Stopping randomly while walking, going the opposite direction on a sidewalk. Taking up the whole grocery aisle. Just no sense of where they are in space."
19. "McDonald's fries."
20. "The job market. It's so unfair for young people these days, I don't even know where to begin."
21. "Driving has always blown, but holy moly, people are way more mean, dumb, and distracted these days."
22. And finally, "Dating."
If you've experienced any of these, or if you have an example of your own to share, I'd love to hear about it down in the comments.
Please note: some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
Comments