the lockdown changed people more deeply than we actually admit. before covid,many people could casually exist around others without overthinking every interaction. you could go to school, college, coaching, work, malls, functions constantly being around humans kept your social brain active without you even realizing it.
then suddenly for months, sometimes years, people got pushed into their rooms and replaced most real interaction with screens. and screens are controlled. you can think before replying, delete messages, avoid eye contact, leave calls, mute yourself, edit photos, and disappear whenever you want. real life doesn’t give that control. so when normal life came back, a lot of people realised they felt weird around others. not because they “hate people,” but because they became socially rusty. they started overanalyzing themselves in conversations, feeling drained in public, struggling to text first, avoiding calls, feeling awkward meeting new people, or becoming hyperaware of how they look and sound. and instead of recognizing it as lost confidence or social anxiety, everyone just started calling themselves introverts, i think there’s a difference between naturally enjoying solitude and slowly becoming uncomfortable with human interaction because isolation rewired your habits for years. the scary part is many people now think this version of themselves is who they’ve always been.