Undoubtedly, the world has changed in big and small ways since we first heard the term “COVID-19.” To that end, there’s a compilation of entries about the new abnormal on a Reddit post called “What normal thing pre-COVID feels weird now?”
The responses show how much things have changed in the past two years, with many being parts of our lives we wouldn’t have given a second thought to in, say, 2019.
For example, “Blowing on a cake to take out the candles and then giving it to other people.”
Another Redditor offers, “Watching post-apocalyptic movies and seeing things on abandoned store shelves that we damn well know would be long gone. Like TP.”
Another noted, “I put on some lipstick the other day for the first time since covid started, and…my 6-year-old looked confused and said, ‘Your lips look all…hurt and bloody.'”
Another now foreign concept: “Still going to work when you’re sick because ‘you’re not too sick to work.'”
“Coughing/sneezing in public,” another noted, to which someone else replied, “We used to cough to hide a fart, now we fart to hide a cough.”
Some noted more serious problems.
“Reading lips. I’m autistic with an auditory processing disorder,” one Redditor confessed. “…Masks have created so many awkward, embarrassing, confusing interactions for me because I can’t lip read anymore!”
The latter is becoming a widespread issue: Jaclyn Theek, a clinic director and speech-language pathologist at the Speech and Learning Institute in North Palm Beach, FL, told a local ABC News affiliate she’s seen a 364% increase in referrals for children experiencing speech delays.
“It’s very important that kids do see your face to learn, so they’re watching your mouth,” she noted.