What is the one of the strangest things...

[RP]

about this "new normal?" It struck me this morning that suddenly the packaging and not the food is potentially the most unhealthy aspect of fast foods...

[Meursault]

When I’m watching or reading stuff I keep finding myself thinking, ‘This is pre-virus. You wouldn’t do that nowadays.’ The most shocking thing in an x-rated film now is people standing next to each other!

Darren

[fitness1]

For me it's the "schedule" or lack thereof.

For almost 30 years now I've worked splits M-F (6-10 and 3-7 ish) and Saturday 8-12)

The last 10 years I've had 4-5 Saturdays off and no vacation otherwise.

Now I've had to shut down completely and I can't go anywhere. The last week seemed like a month.

[Jim Owen]

Originally Posted by Meursault

When I’m watching or reading stuff I keep finding myself thinking, ‘This is pre-virus. You wouldn’t do that nowadays.’ The most shocking thing in an x-rated film now is people standing next to each other!

Darren

Darren,
I’ve noticed this, too. And it’s spooky. I’m thinking that it was Foucault who said that we “internalize the rules.”

It’s strange how quickly we internalized the distance rule.

[fazool]

The commutes are like a ghost town movie.

I work in an "essential" business and at times there is exceedingly little traffic. It's almost creepy.

The other thing is how social distancing has become such a "norm" people walking on the sidewalk, divert their paths to give each other a wide berth. Walking down the hallways, people turn corners to let someone pass - like trains using a railroad siding so another can pass by.

[imwjl]

Quite lightly but nice is seeing many people out exercising in the neighborhood.

For work, and it's grocery for us there's some new and wonderful respect among some staff. The risks are real for all in the retail space and when we all have to be there. Our HQ or management offices are attached to or above or in two stores. There's tremendous amounts of respect and concern. New levels of great teamwork.

How many people work might be changed forever.

1) Where I work. The two women in HQ accounting who manage all the A/P and supporting documents have a new routine based on getting the job done. I've never seen them happier. Same for CFO. They figure out a time to physically deal with check printing and document scanning. Otherwise it's just get the job done. Our pricing and some logistics people are that way too. They chat their week or day, put out an outline and schedule, and get it done.
2) My wife can't be with some kids physically who really benefit but she does her teach/lecture time and then does individual time with some child and parent combos.

The screen: For all those who fear or preach against screen time, sorry. It's winning right now. With all the screen time my kids are still getting outside.

My social media feeds are interesting. I have lots of "friends" not really friends but associates from volunteer work or people I grew up with. Really good and really bad characteristics are showing in what people post on Facebook. I have confirmed I know some exceptionally fine and some terrible people.

[Mr. Jelly]

This has changed our world forever. Note that when the pandemic of 1918 ended it bounced around the world infecting people until 1920.

[Dog Shape Cloud]

Originally Posted by Jim Owen

Darren,
I’ve noticed this, too. And it’s spooky. I’m thinking that it was Foucault who said that we “internalize the rules.”

It’s strange how quickly we internalized the distance rule.

The difference between disciplinary and control society.

Disciplinary authority encloses us with the rules until we start to function within them ("They could be watching, so..."). We internalize these rules too, but they come from outside (school, family, police, etc). The paradigmatic example for Foucault was the panopticon.

In a control society we welcome the rules into ourselves ("I'm always being watched, so..."), and these rules seem to come "from inside." Consequently there no longer is any valid "inside"—we're always already fragmented, "outside ourselves," secondary to our own representations. The paradigmatic example today is the social media profile.

Response to this virus certainly tends towards the latter. New mechanisms of (social, political, psychological) control are instituted for our own good, and as recent years have demonstrated, when these go off the rails there isn't really anything to fight back against—just diffuse networks of modular authorities in which we police ourselves. The question is what these new mechanisms will lead to. Collective environmental action would be a positive (if unlikely) outcome.

[CoffeeFan]

For me it's the redundancy of the day.

I feel like Phil Connors every morning, waking up and hearing Sonny & Cher on the radio...

[OregonJim]

The strangest thing to me is that the Internet is still working. I expected several major backbones to break under the load by now.

Imagine what might happen if large areas went down. The suicide rate would skyrocket. Like China, the Internet is another area we've become much too dependent upon...

[why2]

Bill Gates stated that the internet is one of the best tools we have at hand for addressing this emergency. With the right filters it certainly seems so.

why2

[Dru Edwards]

Unfortunately, part of the 'new normal' is for some people not being able to visit family, especially if they're in a high risk group.

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

Unfortunately, part of the 'new normal' is for some people not being able to visit family, especially if they're in a high risk group.

You are correct. My dad is in assisted living and although my wife’s parents are still in their own home, we can’t visit him or them.
We have done “face time” with all of them and thanks for the technology.
We also did that with our daughter, niece and grandson.
At least we can see their lovely faces and speak with them.

[Dru Edwards]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

You are correct. My dad is in assisted living and although my wife’s parents are still in their own home, we can’t visit him or them.
We have done “face time” with all of them and thanks for the technology.
We also did that with our daughter, niece and grandson.
At least we can see their lovely faces and speak with them.

I'm sorry to hear that, rokdog. I think many people can get used to the sheltering aspect but not being able to visit or help parents is tough. Fortunately, technology is giving people options.

[Neil K Walk]

Originally Posted by rokdog49

You are correct. My dad is in assisted living and although my wife’s parents are still in their own home, we can’t visit him or them.
We have done “face time” with all of them and thanks for the technology.
We also did that with our daughter, niece and grandson.
At least we can see their lovely faces and speak with them.

Same here, but I feel like I should've hidden my 80yo mother's car keys. I dare not visit her because I don't want to possibly get her sick - only she's been out every day so (throws hands up.)

Meanwhile, we have a 16yo son who's severely autistic and has been living in group homes and hospitals for the past few years - but we worked hard and got advocates involved that found a good place for him. We FaceTime with him every day and by all accounts he's tolerating the social distancing very well. I'm glad he's safe and well looked after but his mother and I are struggling with not even being able to visit.