Last Saturday I drank in a cafe coffee with a friend, which I had not seen the whole pandemic. Immediately after we hit the greeting with your elbows, he proudly took the phone to show me the results of his latest medical analyzes: the level of cholesterol, which he used to be elevated, fell, because he stopped walking in cafes and restaurants. He was happy that he should not attend all the events. Being invited during the day earlier on two parties (illegal because of a large number of those who were collected), he said to each of those invited that he could not come, because he was on the other, and stayed at home to watch Netflix.
We were glad to see, but we had enough to communicate less than an hour. After that, each of us apologized and went to blessed homemade loneliness.
The focus during a pandemic, the approximate principle of which year ago we "celebrate" now, was rightly paid to the victims - those who died, disadvantaged, lonely, who had fallen into depression, lost his job, impoverish, women victims of domestic violence, parents whose forced The stay of the house together with the schoolchildren's children turned into endless lessons, young, who watched, how aimlessly passes their youth. But the truth, which is not considered to speak out loud, is that many of us the pandemic is happier.
And now that vaccination promises a return to normal life, not everyone is sure that they want it.
Annual IPSOS survey on the level of happiness conducted in July - August 2020 among 20,000 adults in 27 countries, revealed a curious moment: 63% of respondents said that happy, - only 1 percentage point less than in 2019 it is approximately It corresponded to the usual annual reduction in the level of happiness last decades: from 2011 to 2020, the number of people considering themselves happy decreased in the world at 14 percentage points. The loss of public life did not seem critical, because the main sources of happiness were, according to them, are associated with the life of private: this is "My Health / Physical Wellness", "My Relations with Partner / Spouse" and "My Children".
Professor of Amsterdam Free University of T-shirt Barters, who studies genetics and well-being, took the results of surveys of about 18,000 people and found out that approximately every fifth reported during a pandemic about a significant increase in the feeling of happiness, optimism and meaning of life. " The pandemic simplified the "complex, loaded life" of many people, said Barters European magazine Horizon: "Some people realized that they probably lived not the lives that they liked, and began to spend more time at home with family - so it was possible to partially remove the tension" .
The number of happy, perhaps even more than this data is evidenced, as people can consider socially unacceptable to talk about their satisfaction with life during a pandemic.
Think about all those humble workers who did not need to ride more every day for hated work towards hated bosses (and in Europe they also pay for them to sit at home). In the global study of the situation in the workplace, which Gallup was conducted in 2017, only 15% of employees in 155 countries said that they were engaged in their business. Two thirds worked without hobbies, and 18% - with disgust, "offended by the fact that their needs are not satisfied, and emphasizing their unhappy state," according to Gallup.
Forced vacation has become a relief for many waiters, secretaries in the receptions and those who, in the expression of the Anthropologist David Grabeer, performs "shit work" that does not bring any benefit to society - Laces whose task is that others feel important people Or those who are infinitely calling potential customers, offering them unnecessary goods and services.
They no longer needed to live on someone else's schedule. The same can be said about people whose massive torments are strongly underestimated - who needs to work for a long time. "If you are interested in those who go to work from the suburbs, on average lower life satisfaction, the feeling of the feasibility of their daily activities, the level of happiness, as well as higher anxiety than those who do not have to ride", said The study of the National Statistical Service of Great Britain, during which 60,000 people were surveyed in 2014
And sometimes talk about road traffic jams and problems is not an empty chatter, but a real cry of pain. By the way, the workload of roads and public transport during the pandemic also decreased, alleviating the life of those who still have to go to work.
In addition, most people in developed countries have become richer than before the crisis, because they have reduced, let them be forced, the cost of restaurants, entertainment and trips, and also received money from their governments. The norm of personal savings in the United States last April was a record 32.2% and, although then decreased, still remains much higher than before the pandemic.
Among other things, those of us who did not have to constantly help children engaged in online, or deal with Cowid in hospitals, received such a gift like free time. For example, I have experienced a completely unfamiliar feeling from time to time - I did not have urgent deeds.
Life in society is unnatural, difficult and badly annoying. For the first time we are offered an almost complete virtual alternative: virtual work, meetings, entertainment, shopping, food delivery, sex. Some will never want to return to their former life.
I recently needed to cross Paris after the curfew for the sake of one working event. Antensed by the fact that my quiet, calm evening was interrupted, I realized that I became a slave habit. Since I had to go again in a metro car with strangers, I had a diagnosis of mild fear of the crowd and the fact that psychologists call "anxiety due to return."
I would like to save some habits purchased into a pandemic, such as every weekend to spend completely one day at home. But, I suspect, again will have to return to the docking cycle.
Translated Mikhail Overchenko
The author's opinion may not coincide with the position of the VTIMES edition.