2017 was seven years ago. Let that sink in. So why does it feel like we’ve time travelled?
Enter the 2020 effect: a societal misperception of time due to a shared experience of isolation.
2020 was a weird time. So weird, in fact, that Netflix and Vox took it upon themselves to broadcast documentaries in an effort to understand it.
In this year of “poly-crisis” (coined by Financial Times writer Adam Tooze) we saw in the Global North, just to mention a few:
- Bushfires were still devastating Australia (January 1st)
- Megan Markle and Prince Harry announced they intended on stepping back from the royal family (January 8th)
- WHO announced the emergence of a virus in Wuhan, China (January 9th)
- Kobe Bryant, among others, died in a fatal helicopter crash (January 26th)
- The U.K. formally withdrew from the EU (January 31st)
- Donald Trump was acquitted of his first impeachment charges (February 5th)
- Harvey Weinstein was convicted of criminal sexual acts (February 24th)
- WHO officially labelled COVID-19 a pandemic (March 11th)
- Breona Taylor was fatally shot by seven police officers forcing entry (March 13th)
- George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, sparking the international movement of Black Lives Matter (May 25th)
- Chadwick Boseman died after a long and hidden battle with cancer (August 28th)
- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died (September 18th)
- Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won a historic election (November 3rd)
Essentially, we were completely overwhelmed. Foundation-shifting events were taking place in many pillars of U.K. and U.S. society. Culture, politics, the environment — 2020, unapologetically, took no prisoners. It was an information overload in its entirety and left us constantly having to keep up with the changing times.
With this onslaught of social progress and change, suddenly everyone had to be paying attention all the time — and yet time was passing ever so slowly. Without the usual coffee conversations, our days felt that much longer; we struggled with what to do to fill our time when we weren’t working or fulfilling our human needs.
My hypothesis is that because of how slowly the days crawled by during lockdown, any day we spend actually outside our rooms now hurtles by. Minutes feel like seconds, hours fly past like minutes, and suddenly, all our days pile into what feels like one. But in feeling like we’re rushing forward, we’re also eager to get back. We all want to understand exactly why 2017 feels like three years ago, and why 2020 and 2021 will forever exist in a timeline of their own — where no personal progress was made, but social progress skyrocketed.
It is, of course, a time where we need to remind ourselves of that tumultuous year. In recent Whatsapp group chat screenshots sent to the press, Boris Johnson can be seen knowingly leading our country’s elderly population effectively to their slaughter, and pushing against a national lockdown. Although it may be painful, the hardships we each have suffered — losing time, sanity, and even our beloved — must be remembered. It may have been labelled as ‘the year we lost’ by the Atlantic, but perhaps it was the year of loss, and one which has shaped us into the generation we are today.
We may feel like we have time travelled, but we haven’t. Each day has passed, and with that new challenges, new friends, and new memories have emerged. And we have survived each and every one. If the pandemic has taught us one thing, it is that no matter what we go through, our hope (and pure conviction) will guide us in every step forward — as long as we keep the past in the rearview mirror.