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?

What's lovely from reading this thread is that there's lots of examples of people experiencing others being kind and friendly in real life.

Maybe with the things online that have annoyed us, it's that you can't determine context and tone from a social media post sometimes. Or maybe something reaches you on the internet at a time when you're not receptive to it but at another moment you might feel differently.

I guess you have to go by how people are in real life, how they are with you, and the rest is just noise

I’m loving Facebook, it’s reinforced my belief that there are wonderful, thoughtful, interesting people out there, and many of them I know.
I belong to history/nature/theatre and music groups, everyone is being pleasant and most of the discussions are unrelated to CV. Friends are checking in with each other, supporting each other, and no one’s being a PITA. It’s lovely.
My DD is finding the same in her group of millennials.
Be more selective, dump the bits on SM that aren’t helping.

I've not noticed any moaners on th. Lots of daft videos being shared, which I'm finding funnier than usual. It's like when I was pregnant and found Friends funnier than 1st time round.

I.am.getting sick of having an.8 yr old talk at me all.day though.

As ever - you only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.
People deal in different ways, but ultimately humans are resilient, we all take time to adjust to new norms, we will cope.

I've only seen two celeb related things since this began. One was that Sam Smith guy crying about being in isolation in his mansion or something, the other was Madonna. I looked her up after reading someone saying something about her and saw that she's posted a few videos on Twitter. I don't really understand the fuss about them (there seemed to be some fuss about them), they were quite boring.

Also, as Tolstoy said, "it's much better to do good in a way that no one knows anything about it."

Jesus aid this, too.

Apparently my use of the f word ( with two asterisks appropriately placed )has degraded and humiliated the wider family.

You are socially isolated for life now!

*said, not aid

I have one FB friend who posts Covid stats RELIGIOUSLY. Nobody's asked him to, we can access them ourselves. He gets them from the daily info release from the government so no insider knowledge or early info or anything, it's quite bizarre.

I have also been added to various groups of people posting "funny" videos of themselves or worse, videos of them caterwauling to Adele or Ed Sheeran or something.

I just leave the groups!

I think people are getting kinder in the community but meaner online. Less tolerant of crap, really.

I will say I post a lot of pics on my insta but I always did. I'm sort of using it as an online photo diary so we can look back and remember how odd it was and what we did to get through it. But obviously nobody is obliged to look at them or give a shiny shit about them!

Oddly, my most drama loving and usually draining friend has been the one in our circle keeping us all going, leaving chocolate on our doorsteps, posting memes, organising group chats. It's been nice. Some people just need lots going on.

I can't be doing with the virtue signalling celeb crap.

What's revealing for.me is how absolutely lazy my next door neighbour is! His house is run down e.g his front door has a missing glass pane and has been covered up with tape. His wooden windows that are painted are peeling badly, his garden is full of trash, broken fence gate letting foxes in and he let's it grow into a jungle of a mess, there is ivy all over the back of his house covering his door and windows.

And since I've beeing wfh and my office is in the lounge next to his I've heard his TV on all bloody day!

What the help does you watch all day? He owns a high end car he isnt short of money. Fml do something about your shitty house and garden.

His jungle of a garden got so bad it was coming into mine so I had strong words and he had someone cut it all down and they were burning it cos he would pay to dump it. The next morning the fire restarted the firefighters got called and he wouldnt even let them into his house.or the garden. Lucky I was at home and was using my house to try put it out they came into my garden and did it for me.

Some people!

@JemSynergy which Loose Women are begging? I'm intrigued!

Someone I know on Facebook recently posted a pic of herself in full paramedic gear. Cue lots if you're so brave posts.

She's not a paramedic, she worked, very briefly, as a call handler many years ago.

She currently works for a nice big pharmaceutical company and hasn't been near the frontline for at least a decade.

Regarding middle-aged men, I’ve seen several in the supermarket apparently trying to shop, looking very lost and confused and stressed in some cases.

@Leighhalfpennysthigh wtf where did she get the outfit from ?!

These posts resonate a lot with me. I wish there was a like button!

@Leighhalfpennysthigh I actually think that's despicable!

You should comment "have you gone back to work as a paramedic? Congratulations."

I'm with you @LilacTree1

Its genuinely astonishing how unquestioningly most people fall into line.

@WhentheRabbitsWentWild are you carrying over some annoyance from another discussion? What post did I leap on?

@TiredofSM

“how desperate she is for people to comment on how great her muffins look..”

Are her muffins worth a peek fnarrrr?

The attention seekers on my Facebook are now sharing endless posts about how they don't hoard/panic buy in their house, that anyone that doesn't clap for Boris is a cunt, constantly putting photos on of NHS relatives ( which annoys said relatives)and about a million stay home posts a day.

wtf where did she get the outfit from

It was an old photo, sorry didn't make that clear!

“ Its genuinely astonishing how unquestioningly most people fall into line.”

It’s funny isn’t it

First Edward Snowden blew the whistle and no one cared

Now this.

@Ohhhthepain I resisted the urge and decided that it was a good time to remove myself from Facebook until all of this is over.

It particularly pissed me off as a number of my staff have gone back to work for the NHS throughout the crisis and feel no need to boast about it online. I'm also seconded to the NHS to help manage the local response.

@JemSynergy
Really someone on Loose Woman got out the begging bowl. Who’d that be?