The Roaring Twenties

[osprey_archer]

I keep seeing posts about how after the pandemic is all over, we’re all going to be afraid to touch each other, but I would like to submit as a counter-exhibit the original Roaring Twenties. In 1918 and 1919, the Spanish flu swept around the world in a pandemic that disproportionately killed young people, and yet within a couple of years those selfsame young people were necking, petting, dancing scandalously to jazz, and just generally touching each other so much that it shocked and horrified their elders, who grew up in the pre-pandemic and pre-World War I days of decorous handholding and “Is it okay to kiss a man before you’re engaged?”

(The answer, based on the number of nineteenth-century novels that deal with this question, appears to be “Technically no, but lots of girls do it.”)

So it’s possible that at the end of all this we’ll all have personal space bubbles the size of giant hamster balls, but it’s also possible that we’re going to emerge in a touch-starved frenzy and suddenly people will start licking each other in the streets.

Comments

[rmc28]

I know how much I am gazing upon my friends' and colleagues' faces in our meetings and video chats, like I'm starved just for seeing people, let alone touching them.

I think I may end up *both* with a giant personal space bubble with strangers *and* an inappropriate desire to touch anyone I feel remotely close to.

[osprey_archer]

But perhaps there will be such a societal shift that people will have a much higher threshold for what counts as an appropriate desire to touch anyone we feel close to. "Ah yes," they will say, "an acquaintance you see three times a year, clearly a three-minute hug is an appropriate amount of physical contact with which to initiate this conversation. An actual friend? Well clearly it's cool if you just want to sit in each other's laps while you have dinner in this restaurant."

[ancientreader]

I like this answer! I'm not a fan of being touched by anyone other than a few intimates, but the thought of people sort of cringing away from one another physically did not appeal either.

Gotta say I also hope mask-wearing goes away. I know it's been seen as courteous/socially responsible in many places in Asia for a while now, but I hate not being able to see people's faces, just hate it. Well, except for the faces of Cheetolini and his henchscum, of course.

[osprey_archer]

I have no predictions about the mask-wearing! I think there was some mask-wearing in the US during the Spanish flu (no idea how widespread it was), and clearly it fell out again after that, but who knows what will happen this time.

[rachelmanija]

My bet is on your scenario.

[osprey_archer]

I hope I am not literally correct about the licking, but I bet there's going to be a big uptick in hugs.

(Also your icon is the PERFECT icon for this.)

[sovay]

it’s also possible that we’re going to emerge in a touch-starved frenzy and suddenly people will start licking each other in the streets.

Yeah, I'm seeing much more in the way of ALL THE HUGS from my friendlist.

[osprey_archer]

I think a lot of people are realizing not only how necessary human contact is, but also how many different avenues it usually comes from... because now so many of those avenues are closed off and we're all REALLY noticing.

[ivy]

I have friends who are literally planning the "let's all get together and lick each other" party for after this is all over. (I will not be attending.)

[osprey_archer]

I hope - hope! - that in general, society doesn't turn to literal licking. But it wouldn't surprise me at this point.

[holyschist]

Personally, I suspect I will continue to be leery of crowds (which I wasn't fond of to begin with) but also desperate to hug all my friends.

Also, I cannot wait until it is ok to ask to pet people's dogs again.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, this is definitely more musing about general trends - I'm sure there will be individual people who become leery of crowds, or never want to leave their house again, or whatever. I've just seen some posts that make it sound like the poster thinks all of society will remain forever hunkered down, but surely if that was going to happen it would have happened after the Black Plague.

[holyschist]

Oh yeah, no, I don't think that's likely at all for society as a whole.

I just personally am experiencing CONFLICTING feelings re: other humans and I think a lot of people may end up leery in some contexts and touch-starved in others. It's gonna be weird one way or another.