20241022 - Tuesday Topics - Has covid changed your life, Are we better off because of COVID.

Our topic this week, on the surface at least, may seem a little unlikely. At its heart, our question is "Are we better off because of COVID?" I am not speaking about the country as a whole. I am talking about people who are blind. Many of us had to learn skills we might not have learned were it not for COVID! We learned to use zoom! We learned to shop on line! We acquired a range of knowledge from the community programs that may even have kept us from becoming more frightened and depressed. What other skills did we acquire? Were there other COVID benefits? What about the other side of the coin? What did COVID take away? Are we less willing to go out? Did the skills we learned persuade us we didn't need to leave our houses as often? Did we learn to fear being around other people? Are we frightened of crowds now? The question, then, is, on balance, has COVID left us better or worse off? Join us and share how you feel about the legacy of COVID for people who are blind! Are you more likely to go to plays or movies or stay at home? Now that the conventions of states and ACB are being streamed, do you feel safer being at home? Has COVID made it harder for you to make friends or easier? Do you have more contacts because of the people you meet on line? Are you more  isolated?