Normal Is The "New Normal"

COVID-19... Remember that? Maybe not, as it would seem almost nobody does. Nevertheless, back in the stone age that was 2020 and 2021, there was a lot of talk about what would be the "new normal" for the world now that COVID was a part of it.

As many--especially politicians--have also conveniently forgot, we as humanoids were essentially locked down in solitary confinement for quite a while there. Obviously, the plusher your surroundings, the more you could make the best of the situation...at least ostensibly.

But once lockdowns were over and people could once again poke their heads outside, something funny happened. Lots of us stayed inside. The habit of being alone with our social media, our headlines we agreed with and DoorDash was hard to break, assuming we actually wanted to break it. I mean, even after the "all clear" signal, many employers decided they'd still rather us log in from home than fuss over providing office space.

Indeed, for many, lockdowns were basically utopia. Those types may still be cooped up inside, for all I know.

But what about everyone else? Those who had grown accustomed to at least a modicum of social interaction up until March of '20 found themselves a bit, well...rusty. Probably from around '22 up until dare I say just a couple of months ago, we who ventured forth into society ran into more than our fair share of awkwardness. I even wrote a piece about how self-awareness was as an all-time low. Was it our social skills that had atrophied, or everyone else's?

Truth be told, it's hard for any of us to stay on point when we're out of practice. That's obvious. What gets overlooked is how our lockdown-imposed immersion in social media "echo chambers" and like-minded media outlets influenced many of us to get lazy about thinking critically. That led to widespread "us vs. them" mentality, no thanks to a media that thrives on division.

If you are still inside glued to your screen watching stuff, you may find yourself believing that's how the world really is out there.

But despite all of the societal changes and ensuing pressures that the COVID era brought, I believe something wonderful has finally emerged from its chrysalis of constraint.

As it turns out, for those who actually do venture out, it's looking more and more like normal is the “new normal”.

It's true that I fist-bump as many people as I shake hands with nowadays. It's also true that most of us hold our breath for half a minute whenever passing someone who just sneezed. If those societal changes are permanent, they're minor.

The major revelation over the past few months is people indeed crave social interaction again. Granted, we were collectively stubborn about it, but ultimately we're finally making the effort to socialize, at least insofar as we were between 2008 and 2020 (aka the post-smartphone era). For sure, we aren't as awkward about it as we were mere months ago, let alone surly, angry or aloof.

About now, should you have the nerve to actually break the ice with a stranger, you may get an odd look for the first couple of seconds, but then they're typically thrilled to be socializing. Now, I'd argue that's actually about as normal as it gets. Let's face it, unless you're in rural Alabama, it has never been "normal" to start conversations with random strangers. But yes, people really are not only ready to socialize again, we're all back to being pretty good at it.

Out here in the real world, men want to be masculine and women want to be feminine, and we want to appreciate each other as such. Folks of every race, color and creed really do want to find reasons to get along and live our best lives together in this world. And believe it or not, almost nobody ever brings up politics IRL.

No, seriously. Put me to the test here. Unplug from the divisive media and go actually talk to real people out there. It's really kind of nice...I mean, provided you're a decent person who isn't going around instigating trouble.

Meanwhile, nobody talks about COVID anymore. It's like it never happened. It's not that it didn't matter, and it's not like many of us didn't lose loved ones. It's just that we're done with it.

The masks basically stopped, as did the shots...even if the fist bumps remain.

Indeed, COVID was neither the first nor the only challenge to human normalcy in human history. Since COVID, AI is the latest. But whatever the challenge to our innate human drives--be they social, sexual, financial or even about simple survival--betting on human nature for the win is always a safe wager. Ultimately, whatever the challenge, the "new normal" will always end up simply being normal again.

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