Re:Is going to the office a broken way of working?
by sokoloff on Tuesday October 12, 2021 @08:49AM
(#28839001)
Bars and restaurants being closed or having significant restrictions, recreational sports leagues being cancelled, other (often outdoor) events and meetups being cancelled are reasons why lots of people would do less socializing because [other] people are fearful of the pandemic even if they aren't themselves substantially fearful.
Re:Is going to the office a broken way of working?
by GFischer on Wednesday October 13, 2021 @09:40AM
(#28851920)
In my case, most of my outside socializing was through gaming meetings, and:
- the local Gaming Society closed for 2 years (meeting for the first time after 2 years in November),
- the local game stores stopped doing in-person events for 2 years (still no news on Magic: the Gathering in-person pre-releases, not authorized for Latin America despite my country being basically covid-free),
- I started playing D&D (with coworkers, so the OP has a point), had one in-person session and then we moved to Roll20 (slowly coming back to in-person).
I do think people were socializing outside more before the pandemic.
That said, I think there are pandemic-adjacent reasons people might be doing less socialising. Maybe people you might socialise with have moved away and not been replaced in the last two years. Maybe the people who would organise events you would go to skew more towards the cautious end. Maybe people are less interested in social things due to other upheavals in their lives. Maybe people have forgotten how to socialise. Maybe they are focusing on the relationships they had before more than anything new. Maybe we just forget how hard things were before and look at the past with rose-tinted spectacles.