The prolonged Covid-19 pandemic has left our society impaired of its utmost basic elements. ‘Normal life’ as we used to call it is now an obscure image. While the pandemic has brought inevitable changes in the economy, culture, and social life, it has also affected people's mental health.

Social interaction is strictly restricted. Quarantine is forcing people to interact on a digital platform to sit at our homes and roleplay what is done at school and work. Places such as markets, restaurants, movie theaters, bars, and karaoke, where often people sent time for leisure and entertainment are considered high-risk areas. Our privacy is tracked by the government, just to make sure that when a confirmed patient is located to have walked our paths, we are alerted to take tests - maybe we are the next patient. The piece of cotton covering our nasal openings blind one another from ‘reading’ and seeking the facial expressions.

The nature of a highly contagious virus outbreak has created an alternate reality. A place where we get to enjoy the ‘digital world’ - where no person to person interaction is possible without the help of a device. Mixed emotions flood a person - the anxiety of losing a loved one, the anxiety of not being able to take the SAT, the anxiety of maybe getting the virus, the anxiety of maybe never, ever being able to go back to our ‘normal lives. These anxious emotions are followed by depressing conclusions - the depression of being ‘alone’, the depression of losing a loved one, the depression of constant mental distress.

Many government legislation and orders are being made in attempts to mitigate the proliferation of the virus and possibly slow down the digression of the economy. However at this stage of the pandemic, becoming aware of the distress in citizens, the conflicts happening due to such suppressed emotions must be recognized. Anxiety and depression-related symptoms are now conventional while it may be not long before it causes suicide rates to start to surge.

배진아 강남포스트 학생기자  webmaster@ignnews.kr

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