Five years after the coronavirus outbreak, many Americans say public behavior in the United States has changed for the worse, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.
COVID, or the response to COVID, broke a lot of people’s brains.
I’d definitely agree, especially regarding driving. Last summer I was talking with my insurance agent, and wondering why auto insurance rates were going through the roof, to which he responded that accidents are surging. I live in a small town, and haven’t really seen to much of an increase. Then I went down to visit my mom last weekend, and holy shit now I know what they’re talking about. People driving like absolute lunatics, much worse than when I lived down there, especially during rush hour. Another side note, COVID broke people experiencing concerts. It used to be people dancing, moshing, singing along, etc. Now, people just stand there, usually on their phones, and look at you like a nutjob if you dance. I saw David Gilmore at the Hollywood Bowl a few months ago, and aside from people talking straight through the show (which happened even before COVID because people have always sucked), most of the crowd was sitting still in their seats, and the people behind us got mad when we were standing. It was weird. Like I know that Gilmore attracts an older crowd these days, but still, it’s David freaking Gilmore.
People have been saying that the world is getting ruder for thousands of years. I didn’t see anywhere in the article where they compared this finding to that baseline.
https://insurancenewsnet.com/innarticle/new-data-reveal-reckless-driving-has-increased-post-pandemic
https://aaafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/202407-AAAFTS-Impact-of-COVID.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2046043024001047
Reckless driving, impaired driving, lack of seatbelt use, driving without a license, and road rage are easily documented antisocial behaviors (“rude”) and they have increased. Numerous studies have covered the increase in dangerous driving behaviors since the onset of COVID and they have only decreased slightly since.
The new one in my current city is also driving without a license plats to not get charged at the tolls and being able to avoid dashcams in accidents…
Saying it out loud it’s more like the rules don’t matter because of a lack of enforcement from digital systems being easily exploited.
Japan as well. One theory is that people realized how much nicer it was to have work-life balance and not be jammed on overcrowded rush hour trains only to be forced back to it
I loved COVID so much, if people weren’t dying and people weren’t being deterred in camps (we were forcibly putting people in guarded camps like lol thats gonna be my crazy grampa story) but everything else stayed the same it would certainly be imperfect but closest we’re ever moved toward a utopia.
Tons more road rage
