The Pandemic Has Made Us Stupid

Tales from the echo chamber

It took a very long time to even start this essay, because the pandemic has collectively turned all of our brains to rot. It takes forever to remember synonyms and antonyms of words that we would normally use on a regular basis, and I have frequently resolved to expressing my shock and frustration with things, with a simple “bruh.” Before I go on, this whole piece is just some opinions, and not meant to scientifically explain how the pandemic has made us dumb.

How did we get to this point? Well it’s pretty simple, really. We’ve been trapped in our homes, pelted left and right with internet influencers telling us to take this time to learn new skills, do self care, start a business, whatever toxic positivity nonsense makes it past their brain filters and out their mouths. 11 months ago started with the best of intentions - some unexpected time off for many, and a pivot to 24/7 work for the rest of us. We’re now even more attached to screens than ever before, both because we need to be, and also to distract ourselves from the mismanagement of the largest public health crisis we have ever known and the echo chamber of feedback on every single god damn thing that ever happens, ever.

Not only are we continually assaulted with toxic positivity, we’ve had to endure the public killings of minorities in broad daylight, the imprisonment of those who chose to protest the abject police brutality in the middle of a fucking pandemic, and the never ending government assaults on public health, personal freedoms, and actual facts and truth. At some point, our minds move into their own fight or flight response, and just shut down to the absorption of this information because it is TOO MUCH. No one should have to be constantly barraged by all of this, and yet here we are, day in and day out, doomscrolling Reddit and Twitter and Facebook if you’ve still got it, peeping in the windows of other people’s lives and thoughts, all the while navigating the “it can’t get worse than this” news cycle, where, inevitably, it does get worse.

We are now closing in on a year of endless torture, and it just feels like the brain drain is unending. Starting to write again has been a welcome respite, and necessary exercise for this garbage muscle, but it still just feels like I, and many of us, are getting dumber. Days have no meaning anymore, time is clearly just a manmade concept, we’ve begun using Gen Z slang unironically, after sarcastically implementing it into our vocabularies (after originally typing covabulary), and while there’s no shame in just turning your brain off and unwinding, it slowly seeps into the crevices of the real world, affecting the work you’re doing with people who may not nearly be as sympathetic, even though we’ve all been trying to steer the damn boat without a paddle. I’ve been doing things I’ve never done before - endless typos, burning toast, injuries sustained from operating on autopilot, and forgetting basic things for work that I’d otherwise constantly be obsessing over, and suffering the consequences as a result.

Currently, as the snow continues to come down in New York, it is hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel that everyone keeps promising with the distribution of the vaccine, which is being distributed inequitably to those with better access to resources, rather than those at the highest risk. We are seeing continual ball dropping of plans that had a full year to be made, the lack of prosecution of an actual insurrection, and mind blowingly bad takes that are actual bad takes, traversing the internet like wildfire (something we do not need more of). We continue to scroll, and scroll, and scroll. And we just keep getting dumber.