To think this lockdown is very revealing

[prince55bananahammock]

We're in a pandemic and the outside stimulus of normal day to day life is removed and our usual rhythms have been interrupted.
At first it's about survival, getting food, dealing with finances, putting new habits in place (hand washing, social distancing etc) so we have plenty to keep us and our brains busy.
Plus we're all glued to the breaking news watching as the cases develop, death rates climb, the lives lost get younger and everything gets more scary - lots of things to process here.
Now we're a few weeks into UK lockdown and in a phase of 'the new normal'. We've accepted our fate to an extent and are finding ways to get through each day- in our own ways.
What I've observed is that there are some people being productive ( gardening, cleaning, using the time for homemaking, baking, sewing etc). Some are developing skills (learning, creating etc), some are making daft videos for laughs and others are curtain twitching and making their disapproval known, some are doing none of this and simply trying to get through the day.
But what I find revealing is the people who are drama queens and kings in their lives. They are missing their fix of attention/ chaos and are so desperate to be 'seen' and acknowledged. Because the rest of us are busy with our own situations, and not sending attention their ways, I find it very outing to observe what they text or upload next to provoke a reaction.
Does anyone else find this? It's easy to spot the drama llamas at the moment?

How does Instagram work? Is it an app you join and then add celebs to follow? Do they post everyday?

I joined Instagram because a work colleague was going to post pics of her round the world travels. I signed up and posted one picture of my cat, never posted another thing.
Now I just follow celebrities who are either entertaining or interesting. I am quite fickle because I follow and unfollow depending on how I feel.

I think this time in history is showing the true pointlessness of the social media 'look at meee' updates and that is a good thing. The more people realise that it's a crock of shit the better.

I’ve unfollowed a few people who were making me feel shit with their competitive home schooling/crafting/physical activity in the garden stuff.
And another tranch of people, generally older demographic who are sharing fake ‘- friend of mine whose a doctor...’ shit without fact checking it at all. Just can’t be doing with it.
Oh, and also the I’ll though through petitions and directives to clap. I do not enjoy those. That will get you unfollowed too.

Marian Keyes make up reviews on Instagram are brilliant, not CV related and great distraction.

I love the people who are out probleming each other. Have a close friend in Australia doing it. I get the lockdown is tough, we're all climbing up the walls. But this particular person went into isolation on her own accord 3 weeks before the Australia lockdown was put in place, and she's now Covid bragging and saying how she has it way worse than anyone else because she isolated herself too soon. There is nothing wrong with her, physically anyway!

It's doing my head in a bit.

I too am left wondering what kind of 'celebs' people follow to be constantly bombarded. The only two I would follow don't have social media and the others are just strongmen posting their usual stuff. I only have Facebook but tailor my feed so I only see the posts I want to see.

I have muted several friends and family so I don't have to see their eleventy billion posts a day about absolute drivel though

To say people are ‘supposed’ to stick together. I think this has really brought the nasty side out in people, eg charging ridiculously over the odds for things that is needed. People coughing on people. A dirty specimen has been jailed for a lousy 5 months for spitting at mum with a baby, saying.” I’ve got coronavirus “. Another bloke was licking fridges in Sainsbury’s. What’s wrong with people. The whole shop had to be closed and fumigated.

I’m also wondering how many people will be come institutionalised as result of this. Also how many kids will struggle adjusting back into school. Especially nervous kids.
If this had happened 30+ years ago. I’d have been like a pig in muck being off school. My mum would have had a nightmare get me back in. I’m not calling the a Government on their decision. Well it wasn’t a decision really was it they had no choice.

Oh I love miriam keyes.

Plenty of us are also working from home day in day out to earn money to pay the salaries of nurses with not time for all that other stuff the very privileged are able to do!

Fight, flight, freeze.....those are our choices and you see them play out.

I've found people much friendlier here when I'm out my walk. Usually very few nod and say hello as they walk past, but now most are doing so. It's nice.

@ssd I've found this too. People seem to smile more round here and there's a sense of community in the air. I've spoken to people I've never let on to before and I've lived here for 12 years

Quote ..Who are the celebs in question who are posting annoying stuff? I’m very out of the loop!
Meghan and Harry seem to be ploughing the depths of desperation as their flight to America hasn’t gone quite the way they expected.

They post annoying little snippets , To appear relevant, which are common sense and are well covered by the other senior royals who stayed and pledged their allegiance to the crown, the queen and the people who contribute to their upkeep.

I use FB to keep in contact with family and friends who I don’t see very often ( distance) and it has been great for sharing jokes and photos. No more than usual content at present.
The ones who love posting selfies and social climbing photos Have gone quiet for the obvious reason. When there’s nothing to get dressed up for there’s no point in posting photos of yourself. I suspect they are really struggling with lockdown. Having to entertain your own children 24/7 will be killing them.
My local friends are engaging with each other through What’s app. Not daily but we all post on Fri for the pub/drinks hour.
I think that the majority of my friends are fully aware that we are all in exactly the same position so no ones moaning about it. Perhaps the narcissistic sociopaths are struggling because of their lack of fundamental empathy.

Males, females, young and old, lunatics amongst all of them unfortunately.

I have noticed the self-appointed neighbourhood oracles seem to be missing their adoration ‘fix’. Great!

@EverythingChanges321 are you the vacuum cleaner person?
Sorry but there’s no defending that.

My husband is wfh in a keyworker role - he is very busy - the rest of us are just muddling along ... trying to keep the kids entertained and relatively quiet or out on walks where they can run a bit wild - I’d love to be able to do something constructive to sort out stuff in the house and garden - I just can’t - if everyone survives with mental health intact that will be enough for me

Real life people have been friendlier definitely
On social media I didn’t realise how many fully grown adults were such attention seekers. I mean, you can forgive a teenager but some adults are clearly bored stiff (possibly due to being pretty boring themselves) and posting crap constantly and I do laugh when no one replies

What a lovely neighbour you have there *@Eledamorena. I hope all goes well with the birth and your neighbour remembers he said you could take the car!!

When I was a kid it was said “only boring people get bored”

I worked nearly 40 years in the NHS. I paid tax all that time.

I really don't want to hear about the Beckhams or others in their mansions saying what a tough time they are having or lecturing us. It all seems so trivial. Brooklyn baked some cupcakes or something like that. Makes me want to scream. All to try and stay in the public eye.

That was in response to Xenia's post.
In fact most people pay tax unless they are on minimum wage. Or can afford expensive, creative accountants.

@LilacTree1
Yes, the citizen control thing is revealing

@Chillicheese123
Yes exactly! The people who used to get their drama elsewhere have focused it on 'sobbing hysterically'. I've seen a few tearful selfies too!

@alloutoffucks
True 😂

@Absentmindedwoman
A celebrity that annoyed me was Ollie Murs dancing around his bedroom in his Y fronts - bouncing on the bed while his poor partner slept. He was jigging around and it seemed desperate for attention. I don't follow him on social media. A friend sent me the video. I guess it entertained her 🤷🏻‍♀️

@LakieLady
I like that- embrace the opportunity to be lazy

@SunshineCake
That's really nice