Why does everything feel so different now?

[Toffeenosedrangerr]

I’m not sure exactly how to describe it, but something just feels very different and off compared to 5/6 years ago
Even looking back at social media and how friends interacted with each other on Fb and Instagram, how people seemed more connected.
It just feels like something is missing in the world, some excitement or happiness

Is it just me? Looking back at photos, things felt different and much happier

Same!

I used to feel like this & only see the negatives, from roughly 2021-2023 and looking back I can see I was isolated and depressed. Since then I addressed my mental health and made an effort to return to a lifestyle that makes me happy (cycling, office working rather than wfh) and I feel normal and see joy everywhere.

I do, however, feel more precarious due to cost of living rises so not quite back to pre covid vibes.

I was just thinking that life is beginning to return again. Friends are starting to organise meet ups in person even if they have to travel across the country to do so. Theatres are starting to put on proper plays not just juke box musicals. Art galleries are packed out when I go to exhibitions. People seem eager to return to the physical, sensory life we had before Covid. It's taken a while.

I’ve really noticed this as well. People seem more selfish now. I even notice the difference on tv and can often tell when things were filmed before covid. There was a different energy back then.

I agree OP. I still do the same amount of socialising but things feel harder, less spontaneous. The city I live in is a greyer, more run down version of its former self, restuarants that used to be buzzing, even on weeknights have either closed or put the chairs on tables after 9.30pm. Concerts cost 4x what they did pre Covid.

I think the main thing is I took so much for granted pre-covid. Now it’s hard to go back to that. It feels the bubble I lived in has gone, and that life can change suddenly.

Because it seems more like a life change issue.

It is different but it's always changing.

Life feels hard for many at the moment - cost of living mainly, even if you are comfortable it's hard not to notice the dissatisfaction in society at large.

However some people are living their best lives, thriving. Who are you spending time with and how do they feel? There is truth in you being the product of who you spend time with, I think that probably includes your online influences too.

You're peri age OP, could it be that? If you start to feel very down do get to gp.

How ridiculously patronising.

Yes this. You’ve put into words what I realise I’ve been feeling as well.

Absolutely this.

Every generation has felt threatened by war. Nuclear wipeout. The new Ice Age. Cold War. Whatever.

We're not speshul.

Watch some Adam Curtis documentaries (Like Hypernormalisation, Century of the Self or the newly released Shifty). He explains very well why everything feels so odd - as if we’re all trying to pretend that things are normal when they are anything but! They are fascinating, and oddly dreamlike.

Where can these be found please?

I do know what you mean...

I personally think it's because we're on the verge of the tipping point of a pendulum swing in the UK. People are now starting to "peak" with a lot of movements and the whole "right think" thing. I think we're now on the backtrack from it. There's a lot of high tension in the air. People's mouths have been taped shut for a good few years now.

I'm not sure we can blame COVID really. But I accept some people feel differently.

We are far less social. I blame phones /internet/social media. Adults and kids alike. I honestly sometimes secretly hope the internet somehow irretrievably fucks up and we lose it forever. It's the only way we'll ever stop being addicted to screens and get back to entertaining ourselves in a normal way. I'd take the hit of having to go back to writing letters to people in Australia.

Crikey you lot - listen to yourselves!

The pandemic was a blip for the majority and everyone I know couldn't wait to resume normal life with gusto. Even me and I'm quite a miserable bastard but you lot make me seem like Pollyanna.

I don't want to offend others : but I agree with you. I think when you compare COVID to real big problems like WW2 and living through that.... I worked in the thick of it and never felt like it was this magnitudous world changing phenomena. Just have to dust yourself off afterwards, take stock and embrace life again. In fairness I do think most people have.

It's technology and AI. These technology people should really think of where we want to end up before they bring out all this new fancy shit. I detest it. It will be the ruin of the human race.

Same here! All these people moaning about apps and the internet - on the internet...

It was Covid in a way but Covid turned us to using phones more. So much energy and time goes into scrolling and posting that there’s much less left for real life.
And of course tv streaming.

im not moaning about it just stating what’s changed

Yes yes, just like the printing press was.

I'm moaning About the internet 😅 but I'm guilty as charged: I'm addicted to it too, but wish It just wasn't there to get addicted to. Hypocrite I know.

Why insult a total stranger? PP’s advice was practical and made sense

Everyone posts everything they think on social media nowadays, share political posts, voice their opinions. Social media used to be for photos and memes and now it’s just propaganda and bollocks.
I don’t want to know what my connections (aka friends, family and acquaintances) think about Gaza or trump, I couldn’t care less. Now it makes me judge them where previously I’d have never of known their views.
The world and the UK is completely fucked, and it is not getting better any time soon.
I’ve taken to aim for feeling content with the smaller things in life and for goodness sake don’t watch the news!

They are on BBC iPlayer.

Nothing is the same since Covid. I have this strong sense of waiting, being on hold, a kind of lock down feeling. Everything is different now.