> But what stopped you from distancing from people and using self-checkouts before the pandemic?

This was not uniformly accepted behaviour. Yes, some people could find roles and a situation where this was possible before, but most couldn't. Stores didn't really optimize for a self-check out experience.

The social pressure in many organizations and communities to conform was high and there was no escape. If you you wanted to work at a tech company or startup you would have to accept open offices, happy hours, and other social requires to a great extent. It was not acceptable to skip many events and you had no option to switch your working environment in the office because the only option was open space.

The pandemic has forced a change, most importantly, in a relatively uniform manner. I'm not making the argument that we should all accept this other extreme. Just as we return to normality we should consider the experiences of others, and try to make some reasonable adaptations.

Not speaking to the other points, but I did notice many stores completely reconfigured the checkouts in my area; before the pandemic there were few very tiny self checkout stalls, and there was always a long line of people with just a few items.

Now almost all the aisles are self-checkout and are friendlier to larger cart-fulls like I buy (having a few kids means there's no such thing as a quick trip with a hand basket anymore...).

It's a third of my life, half of my waking hours, that I'm forced to be in a box, dealing with people I wouldn't choose to breath the same air as, pretending to be interested in their small-talk.

If you're working this job and you started it in the office, you actually chose to breathe the same air as the coworkers you seem to so dislike. Saying otherwise is deceiving yourself.

No one is forcing you to pretend interest in small talk. If you're not interested in it, say so instead of pretending.

Are you afraid you'll lose your job over being antisocial or rude if you don't pretend to get along with your coworkers?

You might be happier if you look for a job you don't hate.

(Also if you stop seeing other people as beneath you, but that's a taller order)

You voluntarily signed up to do the job.

By your argument, many people also voluntarily chose to stay home. Plenty of people continued flying, going on spring break, going to clubs, etc throughout the pandemic if there were no legal lockdowns.

If you're a normal person who understands consequences and social interactions, you also understand that not playing social games comes at a cost. As you said yourself:

> just go home straight after work

In your own hypothetical example, I'm still required to be in an office or else be jobless. Finding remote jobs isn't trivial.