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Collected Item: “Watching Pre-March 2020 Movies and TV Shows”

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Watching Pre-March 2020 Movies and TV Shows

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Text Story

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

I’ve spoken with a few friends about this strange phenomenon I experience sometimes when watching movies or TV shows now. When watching a movie, when I see a large number of people in a room together without masks I get a short bout of anxiety. I immediately think, “What are all those people doing in a room together without masks on?” But then I remember that the movie I’m watching was filmed before March 2020. I’ve noticed my roommates do the same thing when we watch movies together. I distinctly remember this scene in “Gone Girl” where there are many people in a large room walking around and one of my roommates said, “Wow, look at all those people in a room together.”

I think this shows that while many of us view the pandemic as a temporary moment in history and will “soon” be over— the pandemic has still embedded fears and anxieties in me that I would otherwise not think about. How I would approach normal things i.e. walking around in a grocery store or watching a movie, I now approach in a completely different way.

I don’t think these fears or anxieties will last very long after the pandemic is over. It’s just interesting to see the ways both my friends and myself behave towards completely normal things pre-March 2020.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#Movies, #Masks, #Anxiety, #LargeGatherings

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Patrick Pagnozzi

Give this story a date.

2020-09-24
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