a lot of relationships were strained and fell apart during that period, there's the stress of how it impacted peoples work lives and employment, and crucially the media machine and the governments they answer to have really doubled down on their propaganda and manipulation which has only progressed and grown more sophisticated utilizing the data gathered and new tools made avaliable since then. the isolation and turmoil are bad enough on their own but the hyper reality they're trying to manufacture, one which wouldn't be so hard to see through and stay grounded if so many hadn't been conditioned so hard during the isolation when cut off and if peoples real life connections hadn't been fucked so hard, compounds it all making it very difficult for a lot of people to ever get back to normal even if they themselves don't realize how they've changed and aren't consciously distressed by it. an atomized and fragmented people are a people unable to weild collective power, who can't support one another, and who are easier to manipulate but being isolated and disconnected from reality like that can also real fucks with peoples heads on an emotional level.
United States