People Explain Which Things Will Never Be The Same Post-Pandemic

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For me, I feel like even if there's a vaccine and the virus is wiped out, the world will still be at a loss.

There will always be that feeling or memory of the time when the world shut down and irreplaceable people died.

MattThunder_7

Caps Off....

Not 100% sure but graduations. My sister had a reduced and socially distant ceremony and after your child's name was called, you were allowed to leave. Do you honestly think that when the restrictions get lifted, people are going to want to sit through all 200+ names?

The_Fandomlady_

Sing Out....

Concerts. I love concerts and festivals. I honestly don't know that I will ever go to another one. My anxiety through all this has helped in now being so turned off at the thought of going to a concert.

kickfliponyourbooty

This hits me hard. I love live music. There's nothing better than going to see a band you love live. But now I know I won't go to concerts in a long time.

Where I live (Finland) there will already be some festivals in August and I'm amazed that some people can go. I don't know how long will it take for me to not feel extremely anxious in crowds again.

Under_the_Red_Cloud

Forgotten....

Nothing. We'll forget. Plagues, Spanish Flu, Smallpox, Polio all happened.

AnOpinionatedGamer

I doubt the people who lived through them forgot. Did you forget the great recession? I know I haven't. My grandparents never forgot WWII. My dad never forgot Vietnam. My mom never forgot quaaludes. This will forever change how people interact with strangers.

Boognish_is_life

Too Close....

Nightclubs , I don't ever see myself wanting to be around that many people in an enclosed space.

Unknownoobza

Bad Education....

School.

ModeratelyPanda

Yep. We teach in overcrowded germ factories.

And a lot of experienced teachers are retiring this year if they can rather than dealing with this crap, and something like 50% of teachers leave the field entirely within the first 5 years. The overall demographic of teachers is going to shift this year, I think.

ElectronicFerret

Grounded.

People flying for business. I'm a FA so air travel is so different this year. Well tens of thousands airline employees will be furloughed come October and if things go well a good portion will be rehired by next spring. Some airlines won't rehire for years. It could be less if more employees take early retirement. Most of the airlines are expecting a year to three to come back to 2019 levels.

Right now foreign international carriers have laid off or terminated probably just shy of 100k staff. I believe close to 40 airlines have gone bankrupt this year.

People will fly again, they want to get out and vacation, see family and friends they didn't see this year and such. Those coupled with fare deals will encourage more to fly when things calm down, but that isn't working well right now with the resurgence of positive cases.

MrsGenevieve

Visitation

America's reputation.

calm_chowder

I can't speak to London but I lived in NYC for a few years. It was great for a young person but I cannot imagine doing it now that I'm older and I have no idea how people raise kids there. No car, no easy shopping, and while mass transit exists it's EXTREMELY slow and the amount of stairs is not to be underestimated, nor is the amount of walking. I would literally walk through the soles of my shoes on a regular basis.

As a younger person I loved going to all kinds of restaurants and bars and museums and stuff, and the cultural scene was amazing - lots of supposedly "amateur" shoes for $5-10 that were incredible. And DAMN, the restaurants. I find myself often thinking of them with genuinely tearful longing. Every kind of cuisine and all of it amazing.

Right now, I imagine it's kind of a second circle of hell, because apartments are TINY and often badly ventilated. The whole point of living there is that you just don't spend that much time actually in your apartment.

lovebyletters

No Tongue.

Spin the bottle.

MistressFreyjaX

Instead of kissing we're just going to make finger guns at each other.

SchalkLBI

"summer break"

Not sure how widespread this is; but, the local universities (US) are starting Fall semester earlier (Aug). Then, when students leave for Thanksgiving break, they do not return until Spring semester starts in Jan. They don't want students to interact with so many people from all over, during the long Thanksgiving weekend; then, return to spread anything.

Plus, those who have to travel far, don't have to return for the short time frame between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Seems like a long-term beneficial shift for all, that should be considered permanent.

Similar to the year-round schooling, the big chunk of "summer break" is slimmed down.

VicSwagger

Office Space.

Work... Many office jobs will be done remotely.

TheOnePunchMan1

This. Businesses will see that they no longer need giant buildings and parking structures to support work that basically amounts to a few emails and some excel or word docs.

TheTrooperNate

Valued Time. 

I think we'll value the time spent in person with family and friends a whole lot more. I haven't seen my parents or siblings or nieces or nephews since Christmas and likely won't until (if?) this whole thing mercifully ends. I daydream all the time about what it will be like to see them all again. I surely won't be squandering that time distracted by scrolling through social media on my stupid phone.

StillLifeOnSkates

No to Real Estate. 

Our law firm is now counting the days until our office space lease is up (649). We've all been forced to work remotely for 4 months which has convinced us we don't need space. We'll likely give back about 1/2 of our floor, and convert the rest into small video-conf conference rooms and hoteling our individual office spaces, instead of the individual 100 to 200 sq ft offices we have now.

Don't invest in commercial real estate...

Beelzabub

I'm Out.

Calling in sick will become calling in via Google Hangouts 😢.

MemberChewbacca

It can't be. Or at least no changes from pre-pandemic. If you're on PTO or sick leave, you're off. That said, I've worked important events (outages, planned major projects, etc..) while severely sick, as I'm sure many of us have.

inyearstocome

The Mainstream....

Remote work will be more mainstream, so needing to live close to work will no longer be as desirable, causing inflated home prices in major tech metro areas to deflate.

Home delivery services like Amazon and Instacart will mean less time spent shopping.

Malls which were already on the decline will start closing down completely.

Business travel will decline as virtual meetings become normal.

Housing with home offices/video production studios and high speed internet will be important selling features.

KungFuBucket

Tech Days Ahead. 

The pandemic has made this very clear that many of activities that require you to go outside are non essential. technology has grown up to fill that gap very well. I think technology will play a big role in this transition.

adnanoid

Can anyone imagine what would have happened if this thing arrived 10 or 15 years ago? The Western world would be torpedoed.

Beelzabub

 "upscale"

Buffets.

Before the pandemic I could go to an "upscale" buffet and tell myself everybody else was being hygienic.

I love buffet. But I will never eat at a buffet again in my life.

FindingAlaska

Zzzzz....

My sleep schedule.

le_totopus

Can confirm. It's 4:30 AM and I haven't slept.

Character-Depth

Days Off....

Hopefully the view of the work week. 4 day weeks are overdue and having the permanent option to work from home 1 or 2 days should be a thing

Not gonna happen soon though.

frerky5

The 40 hour, 5 day work week has been proven many times to do more harm than not. Well for corporate M-F roles anyway. We still gotta have people doing service things but they still need a more appropriate work schedule

But then someone's going to fuss that they have to pay more to employees per hour (this is an issue across a lot of jobs tbh, not just entry level hourly gigs).

Tech_geek23

Save Retail.

JC Penney's is legit about to go under.

Black-Mettle

There's a lot of brick and mortar stores that could disappear by this time next year. Sears, Bed Bath and Beyond, Macy's, Best Buy. Malls are going to empty of most of their anchor retailers.

PeriodDramaDoggoMama