Everyone's saying it, it's catchy too. 'The New Normal'. If you've been asleep under a heavily santised rock for the past few months, you probably have no idea that there's a pandemic around and we are slowly falling into a science fiction-like dystopia.
Last year I had an identity crisis and became a lot more open to socialising and more open minded than ever before, complete confident in the beautiful conflicted mess I was, or should be. This post 'Covid-Material World' compresses and changes who we are, or should be. So many people have been in isolation since about March or so. While a world without physical contact and social interaction should be heavenly and perfect for an newly discovered introverted, possibly non-binary, asexual...It isn't, all the growth that I have achieved and experienced in the last year has been ripped away from me. Doors have been closed. Opportunities are scarce. Coincidences and the chances or synchronicity have been greatly lowered because simply, we aren't meeting new people to broaden our ideas and horizons anymore. We sit inside our bubbles of politics, gender identities and 'pass the parcel' with anything that we feel everyone else should know, regardless of evidence. Meanwhile there's a lot going on, plainly in sight in the world that isn't a conspiracy theory which everybody is avoiding because of the lack of power an individual feels they have, but logically, those with too much money to even spend, could contribute to the further success and security of humanity as a whole, or should be made to.
What the pandemic has made me realise and a lot of other people is that a lot of our identity isn't just on the inside. A lot of it is on the outside, our choice of clothing, fashion, venues, expos and experiences we participate in. We are all being worn down the the same basics. We're just people. We're living, we just don't seem to have enough 'filler material' between the uninteresting parts of life and now, even the very idea of dating and love is an endangerment to all, if you're not already settled, the covid society puts a lot of spanners into the works on how you are supposed to find a soul mate. For a start, nobody can even show their soul, because they can't and don't really want to go anywhere.
Art is suffering, expression is suffering, because nobody can go anywhere to experience art or express theirselves. Because everything is slowly being cancelled, delayed until a completely indeterminable date or everything has to change and adapt by putting the size of an average obese American between seats of cinemas and theatres.
Now that we in a glorious time that toilet rolls and hand sanitiser run free, masks are part of fashion and expression. This is the new normal we live in. Ironically, now there's a world where the introverts can take over, the work at homers, the animators, the game programmers, the artists. the graphic designers. The extrovert entertainer is all but gone, the comedian can't heckle their audience, because there's less of one. The sportsman has to play in near silence whilst 'cheers' are dubbed over the television broadcast, that adrenaline rush of excitement must nearly all but gone and feel like a training session. Actors have to shout out their lines from across the stage and avoid sharing props or touching surfaces.
Entertainment is combination of a library of the past through streaming services and repeats of shows which constantly have to remind us how life used to be and may never be like again. Animation and the videogame industry is probably the two biggest types of entertainments which are going to grow, because of the lack of physical interaction needed to make both and once again, we, the audience can watch or play them at home but still share the experience in conversation that we enjoyed something together, apart.
What do I do? I have the perfect circumstances to get on top in this brave new world. I'm introverted, asexual, but need companionship, I'm better at scripting and drawing behind the scenes than being in the forefront. The world is our very limited oyster.
