An Ironic Society

The pandemic started in 2020 tossing all of us in a state of fear, anxiety and upheaval. We were immediately granted anxiety relief through food delivery services, buy now and payback later programs and stimulus checks. However, soon to find out that money was wasted and you may have gained a few pounds. Our society has become both anxious and lazy, and while many of us have had the pleasure of working from home, interest was lost in our day to day sociability and efforts.

On the other hand, the pandemic has helped to bring change to our priorities. As our concerns shifted, we opened ourselves to new experiences and opportunities. But our money was overspent on food and sanitation products. Our time was spent worrying, wondering and preparing for the worst.

I remember when we first were under Quarantine in New Jersey, I didn’t fully believe it. There were many times when there were state of emergency for extreme weather conditions, and people would still be out driving somewhere. But the pandemic shutdown presented a different sort of precaution. There was literally no one on the roads. All the stores and restaurants were closing early. Universities and the workforce even shutdown. Everyone in school had the benefit of completing their education virtually. People had no choice but to learn quickly and take advantage of new technology or they could lose their jobs. Everyone was basically forced into being a homebody for their own safety.

Fake heaven was sent on earth

Immediately following the shutdown, we were gifted with many benefits from the CARES act, signed by Donald Trump at the end of March 2020. Many people were given at least 1 stimulus package, small businesses were being funded with emergency relief and many employees were furloughed or laid off. There were incentives to leave your job and collect unemployment instead, with some states offering an additional $300–600 on top of their regular unemployment benefit. Of course that didn’t last for too long. The economy quickly became overwhelmed and overprivileged. Following the CARES act, medications, vaccines and at home covid test were being recommended and still are today. Many other variants of the virus were surfacing, bringing our society back into a state of worry right after we’d feel just a little bit safe and comfortable.

It seemed like no one really knew what to do

Immediately during the pandemic, we were told to rush to the hospital if we experienced certain symptoms. But our life was not guaranteed. This influence shifted our priorities. Some of us needed that push to break us away from prolonged indecisiveness and procrastination. Others didn’t needed that extra push and they were forced into making decisions that didn’t benefit their business or life circumstances.

Freedom was taken away and people rushed to find it back elsewhere. The young adult and middle-aged population stopped working traditional jobs, and started working for Amazon and DoorDash. People felt like they didn’t know what was going on. There was a lack of expectation. It became easier to gravitate to something similar or of a completely different energy. DoorDash, Amazon and similar job forces gave people that freedom of not knowing, yet eventually being able to catch on.

Truly, this has been a very experimental time. With the corona virus still being experimented for treatments, our society has been the lab rats for observation.

Virtual care and delivery services brought upgrades to our society

It seemed like our society has been preparing for the pandemic all along. For years now markets have shifted into virtual services and delivery. We no longer had to go to the supermarket, clothing store or pharmacy to get what we need. It can be ordered and delivered. At first this only seemed convenient for those with a health condition, or maybe those with busy lives who only have a limited of time each day. Others sometimes just feel lazy and can utilize the time relaxing while enjoying the convenience of having whatever they needed delivered straight to their front door. Eventually, this opened doors to Telehealth medicine and virtual care. Telehealth as an alternative to traditional or in person doctors visits was only temporary convenience for many people. Especially for those who were continuing a treatment. For many others, it seemed as though virtual care took away from care. This conveniency was not only a benefit to patients, but to doctors, nurses, other practitioners and insurance companies. Perhaps, the need to make a living was favored over the intention of being a provider of care.

Redeveloping our society for better or for worse?

The pandemic has brought on a lot of endings. But within these endings, a lot has changed or transformed. Part of maintaining life requires change, and within change we can either incorporate or extract something. These last few years have been a contradiction. We have been triggered with anxiety and then we were forced to relax. Many of us became anxious and lazy. The blessing is that the pandemic opened up many new paths for our society, but at what cost?

They made us wear these masks, fooling us into feeling as though we have a right to our privacy. Ironically, it seems like these innovations and higher technology are actually getting more into our business.

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