Are We Experiencing COVID-Boring?

This will be a long and tough road.

There are two camps in the world. “Covid-Zero” and “Let it rip”. The pandemic is far from over but has transformed into a different situation. Either way, no one is winning.

Since March 2020, people have been experiencing a roller coaster of emotions. Lockdowns sent people into a spiral of depression and sadness. Re-opening left people feeling anxious and scared to venture outside their house. There is no situation like pre-COVID. While most countries are now double-dosed, people are still trying to get back to normal life. This is a difficult task to accomplish with new variants being even more transmissible.

Most people are experiencing COVID-boring. Meaning that while we all stay at home to stay safe, others are trying to venture out resulting in disappointment. Either way, people are bored with the pandemic now.

The pandemic “boredom” has become a world where people feel disconnected when life appears meaningless or uninteresting. While being bored challenges our sense of self. With COVID-boredom our lack of interest is exaggerated to the point where daily life feels mundane.

Everyone experiences boredom differently. This can be an overwhelming experience for different people which eventually becomes depression. While life is on pause, people will start to ask themselves important questions.

Questions like:

“Why am I here?”

“What is my purpose in life?”

“What am I passionate about?”

“Am I happy with where I am right now?”

It is very common to ask these questions during turbulent times.

I never thought I would ever get bored of Netflix. If someone told me I could spend the last two years watching endless amounts of television and catching up on all my favorite movies. I would say YES, that’s awesome! That I was staying indoors for humankind and the good of the country.

While I know boredom is a luxury experience for most of us, others are not so fortunate. Others are just trying to get by and earn an income. Not everyone has the opportunity to feel any sense of boredom during the pandemic. Health care workers are stretched thin and other services are having to step in to help.

It all comes down to control. We no longer have control of our lives. The government tells us what to do and when to go out. We have all experienced these difficulties with the lockdown. We cannot plan for the future and it is so frustrating. Young couples cannot plan for their future children. Students are in limbo about their school year and office workers have no clue when they will be back in the office. With the new variants going around, people are better off sitting tight inside their homes.

Humans can only live in fear for so long. We do not know what “normal” looks like post-Covid. What will the post-boredom economy look like? Boredom will look different to us for the rest of our lives.

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