April 16, Thursday

Social media was also affected. It was plagued with exaggerated worry, news of the racially-profiled, and social media trends stimulated from excessive boredom. The inside-culture amongst us dwells to this day, April 16th, to which most people are now participating in. With this in mind, I saw a slight change in our colloquial speeches whenever the topic of Corona was raised.

At home, my family pretended that Covid-19 didn’t even exist, because that conversation seemingly required our jaw and eye muscles to the extent that it strained them ultimately and deprived us of our optimism. Since we have always maintained a sedentary lifestyle, we still remained active in the house. Mom, before, still had to work every other week, night shift after night shift, afraid that some of her patients have finally caught her with their bacterial luggage. Nowadays, she revealed, there had been a significant reduction in patients, thus reducing her salaries somewhat.

She talked about her work frequently, but we didn’t address whether or not she brought her work home.

Our change in language only stayed within our thoughts, so phrases such as “I don’t know” dampened our reflections when we thought, Corona. Questions such as “What will happen” begin to push through barricades of our means of distraction, but we all know that we can’t help but worry and question. Worry and question. With this in mind, I have circumvented any sort of article regarding the case to ease my mind off. It was hard enough to study in a rather comfortable setting.

When I took a quick scroll through Instagram, I again recognized a change in speech, but I didn’t look at that thoroughly until later. Because I still have duties I have to afford myself to, I frequently forget to turn in assignments or finish them entirely. During live sessions for my classes, I always have heard “social-distancing” and “self-isolation.” Words were becoming more prominent across the face of the internet, and how they could have entailed a different interpretation than what it originally meant.

I recollected confiding in Brooklyn about how particular words intended to affect the essence of the entire sentence and piece, sprouting implicatures here and there. When people can employ words correctly in the “correct” tone, the reaction from their audience could become more favorable than expected. I gave her an example of “Self-care v. Self indulgence” in which most people began to confuse the two the way they would when it came to “Love v. Infatuation.”

In the case of “social-distancing” and “self-isolation,” people have mistaken them for being synonymous with each other to which I’ll respond by distinguishing their difference. The terms “Social-distancing” have created a massive product of antisocial depressive mentalities and behavior, thus implying a literal translation and extraction. The term was only applicable in regards to social gatherings; however, it already seemed that, in unprecedented and gigantuous amounts, people have assimilated the literal definition with no question, and adapted this in their already sedentary lifestyles.

Most have cooped up in their rooms, living in the dark, with no intentions of going out. This is “self-isolation,” which to me is a form of self-harm. “Social-distancing” marked the prevention of physical interaction, not emotional connection (though some already noticed this). Once they underwent a feeling of loneliness, these people had the proclivity to constantly post on their Instagram stories. For a de-stressing moment, I fleeted through them. They were asking “Wyd,” a distinct abbreviation of slang that meant “What’chu doin’” and doing challenges for the sake of relieving the overwhelming burden of feeling alone.

Coupled with the need to go out and enjoy their best life, teenagers and adults alike automatically post memes regarding “Quarantine,” podcast hosts referring babies born at this time as “Coronnials” or “Quarantine Babies,” and the xenophobically-inclined shouting “Kung-flu” or the “Chinese virus.” The last claim took me a while to ponder. Perhaps the definition of self-isolation associates itself so well with the perfectly worded social-distancing that the misconstruction generated not just immense boredom in their lives. Boredom now grew to become the cornerstone of justifying racism and anger towards other cultures. Surprisingly, other disenfranchised groups began to participate in this dehumanizing act, which becomes ironic when you already know that they have shared the same sentiments and struggles. When they already knew how it felt to avert your gaze away from one white person quickly before the minute they strangle you. When they already knew how each leering eye heightens your unrest. And all the mind can draw is the long, stretched path to your house, instead of the streets you had to take to go back.

History has convinced me that no matter what I do, I certainly cannot appease them to like me in a way that they’ll think I’m harmless. The misconceptions about the semanticity of particular phrases or words to me are so dangerous — and past events have proven that — that what troubles me even more so is the time we return back to outside of our homes. What happens, the people will think. What will happen, the people have thought.

And with that, a new culture and social hierarchy is born.