Now that we’re year three into the pandemic it seems that people are struggling more than ever before. Even though it’s been so long, it doesn’t feel like anyone’s gotten any better at dealing with it. You’d think so, but it’s actually quite the opposite: people are getting crazier, more restless, and falling into things like depression, and various mental illnesses etc. I know I am struggling some days. I mean, don’t get me wrong: I am doing okay in the grand scheme of things and I’m an only child who is used to reading and keeping to myself, even pre-covid. And I am lucky to be employed currently during a time that is difficult financially for so many. Still though, I can’t help but feel mournful about the time I’ve lost some days. And bitter and sad at the state of the world in general. Just the other day I was 27, and now here I am about to turn 30 with none of the experiences I wanted to have in my 20s. I also feel myself resenting and hating everyone that has gotten to travel during this time more and more. I had a big trip planned to Amsterdam in 2020 that I had to cancel for obvious reasons, and now that I’m working I have no clue when I’ll ever get to go (if I ever do). I would like nothing more than to be somewhere in Europe right now writing a novel in a nice cafe or something like that, but here I am. And even if I do make it over there: I’ll never get to experience a mask-free Amsterdam or Vienna. Those days are over.
To put it simply: human beings are not supposed to be under lockdowns like this. I don’t care about what the virus is doing or how it’s helpful to shut everything down for everyone or whatever, that is besides the point. The fact of the matter is that, any way you look at it, what the world has become is kind of a cruel joke in which the people with the most amount of energy to burn are forced to do so under what feels like government approved areas only. It feels like the government just wants everyone to be inside constantly, wasting away their energies and youth on frivolous things like social media or watching terrible movies and poorly made TV shows on Netflix, etc. They don’t want their young people to be active and outdoors like previous generations were, they want everyone to be docile rats glued to their respective screens.
A recurring sentiment I’ve been seeing these days from younger people is that they no longer have the concentration required to do simple things like reading a book for the extended periods of time they used to. The main reason for this being: our social lives are now tied to our phones. We have to be on them constantly to be part of some kind of cultural conversation, which further ruins our attention spans. Instead of being the social creatures we usually like to consider ourselves as, we have to trade that for the phone and settle for things like zoom meetings or other types of virtual hangouts of that nature. It is even scarier when you think of the effects this will have for kids that are even younger than teenagers currently: they’re a whole group of people that will never know what it was like to socialize with people regularly and enthusiastically without the presence of a phone anywhere. Young people are quite literally getting dumber and more boring as their reliance on these forms of communication gets stronger over time. Every generation has been getting significantly more boring as time has progressed due to these devices and the mystery of life being taken away; boomers had it the best, Gen X were kinda cool but slightly less exciting, Millennials were more boring, and now Gen Z has less opportunities to do things and are naturally, way more boring. I shudder to think about what comes next. No one is gonna have cool stories in the future that take place in real life.
The saddest thing to me about all of this is that it’s all because of a virus that doesn’t even seem to affect the group of people suffering from lockdowns the most. Covid kills people who were already unhealthy to begin with, and yet the healthiest people I know in their 20s and early 30s are being forced to lose their livelihoods, their social circles, and any chance at a normal life in general. Even worse, as we age our way of life is slowly being phased out in favour of the technological realm, and soon the younger generations will think we’re the crazy ones for wanting to do things in person as they continue to accept the sick tech tradeoff being sold to them without questioning it for a second.
One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2022 is to finally settle down and find a decent girlfriend before I get older, uglier, and grosser than I already am and nobody wants me (I’m not anywhere remotely close to finding one, by the way, haha). So I’ve started using dating apps again, something I swore off using at the beginning of 2020 (a moment in time I resolved to “put myself out there more,” which went really well lol). Something I keep seeing on dating apps is all the girls in their early 30s with captions on their profiles saying something along the lines of, “Never thought I’d be on a dating app in my 30s.” It is cruel to think that, in the eyes of society, women are generally considered their hottest when they’re in their 20s, and as a result of cities everywhere closing everything (I reiterate, once again: because of a virus that doesn’t even seem to kill healthy young people), a whole generation of young women are missing out on finding suitable partners. I’m not saying these women will never be able to find boyfriends and significant others, I’m just saying these are very important years and as a generation of young people we have all been robbed. It’s cruel to the women, and by extension the men, who were notoriously bad at communicating before: now they’re even worse. They’re so rusty now they don’t even know how to date. Where does one go? What is there to do? What is a courtship process in 2022 looking like? Is dating even a thing anymore? If the government had their way they would force Apple to make phones have a pussy slot we stick our dicks into (which, by the way, is effectively what addictions like online pornography are already doing to young men — technological infertilization).
To pause and quickly recap here: I’ve briefly just covered things I am saddened by. 1.) The younger generation of kids being irrevocably changed, and 2.) The courtship process being eviscerated. Those two are big and pretty devastatingly bad. But another big thing weighs on me: 3.) People who were already suffering with various mental illnesses and disabilities before the pandemic.
There’s a dude in my neighborhood I see from time to time when I go for my walks (because walking is the only thing the government has left me with). We went to the same elementary school together, and I’m not sure what it is exactly, but he has some kind of learning disability. He was in the special ed class and had it when we were growing up, and he still has it now. Maybe it’s Asperger’s, but I don’t want to ask and I’m not really sure. It doesn’t matter.
We bumped into each other a few months ago and caught up on life since growing up and what the pandemic has been like for both of us. He has mentioned to me more than once phrases like, “I hate this shit,” and “I’m not sure how much of this shit I can take.” When I asked him how he tends to spend his days, he told me he’s still confused by all of this stuff, wakes up really late, goes on the computer, wastes time for awhile searching random stuff on the internet and entertaining himself, and then when he feels restless he goes for a walk. When he goes back home he goes back on the computer and kills more hours doing the same thing until 3 or 4 in the morning, and only goes to sleep when he can’t read shit online anymore. He’s a deeply intelligent, observant guy I learn a lot from every time we talk, and I don’t think he would ever do anything harmful to himself or anyone else. But I worry a lot about others like him that are not as strong. That kind of lifestyle can keep one busy, but it is clearly no way to live in the long-term. When I think about all the lonely people in the world it seriously hurts my spirit: as a society we should not be accepting this. It’s an upside down world right now where we are being told a bunch of lies, and the healthiest people are being harmed the most by said lies.
Drivers are getting more reckless, employment is still terrible for a lot of people, and like I already said: there don’t seem to be any meaningful social outlets for anyone. A phone screen is not a healthy replacement for a real life girl. I don’t want to text with a girl on some dumb app some rich tech nerd named Mustafa somewhere is making money off. I’d much prefer a real life wet, warm pussy. Sorry to be vulgar. I could’ve said “hug” instead and it would’ve been fine, haha. But I’m exaggerating to make a point: the damage this is doing to people with mental issues is very worrisome, and we’re only in Year Fucking Three. It’s sadder when you realize this thing is going to go on for 3 more years probably. Can the general public really take this shit until 2025? I don’t think so. They let us out for our walks, and allow us to go outside in the summertime like well-trained dogs (presumably because they realize on some level what this is doing to us), but that is not nearly enough.
There’s one more thing I want to discuss, and that’s the painting of this whole situation like it’s somehow for some kind of greater good. I hate hearing phrases thrown around like, “We’re all in this together,” and, “The new normal.” The truth is we really aren’t in this together, and this should not be accepted as anything other than the rape of an entire generation’s youth. The irony of all this shit is that the politicians in charge of things are a bunch of old boomer fartbags, they’ve had the best years of their lives already, they’re still living it up, and now they’re selling this thing to us as some kind of wartime effort we all need to make. It’s a load of horseshit anyone with a brain can see: these types go on vacations all the time themselves, yet whenever there’s a surge of some kind of variant, as young people we’re expected to be on our best behaviour.
Anyway, I guess that’s enough ranting on this for now. Please remember to drink water, get your exercise, talk to the people in your lives, reach out to an old friend, and keep busy. Read a book, work on some kind of project. Don’t get too fat indoors in toxic stagnation and inactivity (or you know what: take full advantage. Go ahead and get fat if you want. We’ll stay inside to protect you from getting covid when you get too vulnerable🤣🤣).
