What the hell happened to US post 2019?
COVID-19 lock-downs, especially on the West Coast, essentially tore our society apart from its usual social norms. In some places, like where I live, it was illegal to even have people from more than one other household in your residence for nearly a year. That's a whole year without holiday gatherings, visiting family, etc. No church services, no 5K runs, no weddings or funerals, no community pot luck dinners, nothing.
I had a grandfather (on my mom's side) that passed away in Seattle in early 2022 - we had to hold his memorial service in the old folks home he
worked at, just to get around the law saying that people weren't allowed to congregate (we still had to wear masks). Meanwhile, I had a grandma (on my dad's side) that died in Florida in late 2021 and people from all over the country were able to attend her services, me included thankfully. It was really eye-opening how drastically different things were at both funerals.
If I wanted to go out with my friends now, where would I even go? Almost all the non-chain restaurants, movie theaters, stores, etc. all closed up shop when the government told them they couldn't be open, and very few of them have come back still. The place I live feels like a ghost town a lot of the time, despite the pandemic being declared officially over last year. A few fast food joints have re-opened, but honestly who wants to go hang with their buds at a Domino's Pizza takeout window?
Also, I know this study focused on adults, but I think kids got the worst of it. They were all sent home from school in March 2020 when the pandemic was ramping up in the US - they basically just all got let out of school for spring break, and school never went back in session that term. When school started back up in the fall, it was all Zoom classes. Just this year, a few months ago, did the schools finally open back up for in-person classes. That is almost 4 years that kids here went without socializing face to face with their peers. Imagine if you started high school when this all went down, and now you've graduated and the only social interaction you've had with your peers and teachers has been over Zoom.
Not everywhere in the US was affected like it was here. Like most things everywhere had either a bunch of restrictions or very few. I think we got the worst of it. But I think stuff like this definitely contributed to the down tick in things like religiosity, community involvement, and social engagement with friends across the board.
