Category: Pandemic Art

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Pandemic Pandemic Art

Coronacation

When the pandemic started in March 2020 it gave most of us something we lack – time on our hands. Some devoted this extra time to self-care, others (like me) used the time to work on projects around the house. I built a gym in my basement. Despite the frustrations of lockdown and quarantine, the experience has been offset by the advantages that come with remote working. Not having to commute and being able to work anywhere sometimes felt like a staycation (Ho).

The term appeared in the Urban Dictionary on April 5, 2020: “Getting paid to be off of work and having nothing to do or nowhere to go.

-The trip I took to Puerto Vallarta and got stung by a sting ray beats the hell out of this coronacation I’m on. This sucks!” (Casper 70).

Coroncation appeared as a new word suggestion in the Collins Dictionary on August 20, 2020 courtesy of LexicalItem.

a prolonged period at home away from one’s normal place of work, study, etc. viewed as an obligatory holiday imposed by stringent COVID-19 restrictions. b) a holiday or vacation taken during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. (c) indicating disapproval: holidaying to or vacationing in a destination where the risk of contracting COVID-19 still persists to take advantage of abnormally favourable travel, accommodation, etc. rates reduced because of the downturn in tourism caused by the pandemic.

Coroncation found its way into news articles. Jenna Intersimone who writes for Bridgewater Courier News, encouraged readers to “take a mini ‘coronacation’ by driving by these NJ landmarks.”

Some people got creative during their “coronacation.” There are a number of “Coroncation song” videos on YouTube but this one had the most views (over 5,000) and shows teachers singing a song of encouragement to their students who are virtual learning. The producer describes it as “a video to encourage students to work hard while learning at home. And to let them know that their teachers love them!” (Hamlin).

courtesy of Make a Meme

Social Media Trends as of July 10, 2022

Facebook #coronacation: 36,000 people are posting about this
Instagram #coronacation: 195,131 posts
TikTok #coronacation: 516.9 million views
YouTube #coronacation: 515 videos and 233 channels

Google Trends: coronacation first appeared during the last week of March 8, 2020 which coincided with lockdown. The popularity of the term peaked the following week and then tailed off that summer.

coronacation search term

Sources:

Casper70. “Coronacation.” Urban Dictionary. April 5, 2020. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Coronacation.

“Coronacation.” MakeAMeme.org. URL: https://makeameme.org/meme/coronacation-428266aacb.

Hamlin, Katie. “Coronacation Song.” YouTube. March 17, 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to-LlG9EUB4.

Ho, Sally. “Coronavirus Vocabulary: 8 Slang Words You Need To Know During The Pandemic.” GreenQueen.com. April 29, 2020. URL: https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/coronavirus-vocabulary-8-slang-words-you-need-to-know-during-the-pandemic-2/.

Intersimone, Jenna. “Take a mini ‘coronacation’ by driving by these NJ landmarks.” MyCentralJersey.com. May 13, 2020. URL: https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/things-to-do/2020/05/13/new-jersey-landmarks-day-trips-road-trips-coronavirus/5176172002/.

LexicalItem. “Coronacation.” Collins Dictionary. August 20, 2020. URL: https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/submission/22664/coronacation.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art Virus

Patient Zero

Patient zero refers to an individual who becomes the first known case of an outbreak of a communicable disease in a specific geographical location. The term isn’t a new one, but in context of the pandemic, it refers to the first person diagnosed with Covid-19.

Merriam Websters dictionary defines patient zero as “a person identified as the first to become infected with an illness or disease in an outbreak.

-The quest to find patient zero, the first person to contract the new virus, has revealed the first known case occurred in Wuhan.”

An article published for the BBC on 23 February 2020 says: “As the cases of coronavirus increase in China and around the world, the hunt is on to identify ‘patient zero’…Chinese authorities originally reported that the first coronavirus case was on 31 December [2019] and many of the first cases of the pneumonia-like infection were immediately connected to a seafood and animal market in Wuhan, in the Hubei province” (Duarte).

Before the Trump administration restricted travel from China, it’s likely that Covid-19 was already spreading throughout the United States. The first person to be diagnosed with coronavirus was a man who tested positive in Seattle, Washington, on 21 January 2020. He had previously traveled from Wuhan, China, where the pandemic began. There was an outbreak of coronavirus in a nursing home outside of Seattle and cases soared. Washington state reported on 29 February 2020 its first death from Covid-19 which may have been the first pandemic death in the United States (Singh).

In March 2022 an independent film produced the movie “Coronavirus: Patient Zero (2020)” and uploaded it to YouTube. A Washington state clinic sees a large number of patients, “suffering from a new outbreak of illness, Dr. Stone (Tim Ross), the head physician, tries to understand the cause and who is Patient Zero as the CDC moves in to quarantine the clinic in a desperate attempt to stop the spread” (Coronavirus: Patient Zero).

courtesy of Make a Meme

Social Media Trends as of June 30, 2022

Facebook #patientzero: 3,600 people are posting about this
YouTube #patientzero: 320 videos and 196 channels

Google Trends: patient zero appeared during the first week of December 2019 when the pandemic started in Wuhan, China. It reached its peak during the week of March 15, 2020 which also coincided with a national lockdown in the United States.

patient zero search term

Sources:

“Coronavirus: Patient Zero (2020) | Full Movie | Tim Ross | Samantha Melvin | Bobby Lacer.” YouTube. March 19, 2022. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXBH6qTd804.

Duarte, Fernando. “Who is ‘patient zero’ in the coronavirus outbreak?” BBC.com. 23 February 2020. URL: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200221-coronavirus-the-harmful-hunt-for-covid-19s-patient-zero.

“Have you seen patient zero? – #COVID-19” MakeAMeme.org. URL: https://makeameme.org/meme/have-you-seen-2486856420.

“Patient Zero.” Merriam Webster. URL: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/patient%20zero.

Singh, Maanvi. “Tracing ‘patient zero’: why America’s first coronavirus death may for ever go unmarked.” The Guardian. 26 May 2020. URL: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/26/us-coronavirus-patient-zero-100000-deaths.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art

The Great Realization

We now call it the Great Realisation
And yes, since then there have been many.
But that’s the story of how it started,
And why hindsight’s 2020.

Tomos Roberts

On 29 April 2020 a bedtime story about the pandemic was uploaded to YouTube and quickly went viral for its brilliant story telling, imaginative content and message of hope for everyone living through this once-in-a-century event. The popularity of the poem soon skyrocketed and the luxury and lifestyle magazine Condé Nast Traveller published an article about it on May 11, 2020:

Chances are you’ve seen “The Great Realisation” by UK poet @probablytomfoolery, in which he reads aloud what might be the greatest fairytale of our times. The video, set in a post-COVID19 world and uploaded on 29 April, has been viewed over 30 million times across platforms, and the poem has been transcribed into several languages. Creator Tomos Roberts has requests for a children’s book from publishing houses and even Hollywood’s Jake Gyllenhaal.

The Great Realization is more than two years old and continues to inspire hearts and minds. You can watch it on YouTube here:

The poem was published as a book and is available from Amazon.

After more than two years of lockdowns, quarantine, travel restrictions and remote working, perhaps we will discover the truth of what Tomas meant when he wrote the following:

“And so when we found the cure,
and were allowed to go outside
We all preferred the world we found,
to the one we left behind
Old habits became extinct,
and they made way for the new
And every simple act of kindness,
was now given its due.“

Social Media Trends as of June 26, 2022

The hashtag #thegreatrealization produced erroneous results and generally didn’t have anything to do with the poem, however, the book’s front cover says the video has been viewed 60 million times.

Google Trends: “the great realization” as a search term registered about a week after the movie was uploaded to YouTube. Its popularity peaked during the week of May 3, 2020. The video has since been viewed over 7 million times.

the great realization search term

Sources:

Ancheri, Saumya. “Tomfoolery’s viral bedtime story about the pandemic.” Condé Nest Traveller. 11 May 2020. URL: https://www.cntraveller.in/story/heres-the-twist-to-probably-tomfoolerys-viral-bedtime-story-about-the-pandemic/.

Probably Tomfoolery. “The Great Realisation.” You Tube. April 29, 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw5KQMXDiM4.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art

Body mullet

This term refers to a person video conferencing over Zoom who wears business attire on top and casual attire on the bottom which cannot be seen. This trend seems to have started during the pandemic when most office workers were working remotely. It’s sheer laziness to wear a jacket and tie for a Zoom business meeting and tracksuit bottoms below the waist which are not visible to the camera.

An article entitled “Lexicon for a Pandemic” published on July 20, 2020 describes a body mullet as “what most people wear on Zoom calls: a nice top and, below the waist, underwear or less” (Martel).

The Urban Dictionary defines “body mullet” as “Business on top, party on the bottom. When working from home from waist up you appear professional but from the waist down you are wearing, pajama bottoms, shorts, underwear, nothing, etc” (Bolow399).

Check out this funny “Body Mullet” music video by Mike Begra.

Social Media Trends as of June 3, 2022

Facebook #bodymullet: people are posting about this
Instagram #bodymullet: 49 posts
TikTok #bodymullet: 3,899 views

Google Trends: “Body mullet” peaked during the week of July 26, 2020. At this time many office workers were working remotely.

body mullet search term

Sources:

Begra, Mike. “Body Mullet.” YouTube. May 21, 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1C3PqbdMY4.

Bolow399. “Body mullet.” Urban Dictionary. June 15, 2021. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Body%20Mullet.

Martel, Jay. “Lexicon For a Pandemic.” The New Yorker. July 20, 2020. URL: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/07/20/lexicon-for-a-pandem.

Martel, Jay. “Lexicon For a Pandemic.” Twitter (The New Yorker). July 16, 2020. URL: https://twitter.com/newyorker/status/1283960319270944773?lang=en.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art Vaccine

Vaxed and Waxed

Now I’m vaxxed and I’m waxed
And I’m looking for trouble
Got the Johnson Johnson but I made it a double
Got double meds ’cause my body resist

Country Grits and the Dicks

Vaxed and waxed found its way into the Covid lexicon in the spring of 2021. Escape.com defines it as “the process of getting the Covid vaccine then popping over to the beautician to rid oneself of the bikini line that’s accumulated after a year of hibernation on the couch” (Smiedt).

The phrase became so popular that on April 19, 2021 Mashable.com declared “The people have spoken: ‘Vaxed and waxed’ is the summer 2021 motto.” After more than a year of being cooped up indoors under lockdown and quarantine, whilst practicing social distancing, people are finally ready to go out and party now they’ve been vaccinated. The relief at finally being able to reconnect with friends and family and meeting new people has us “all but screaming ‘vaxed and waxed’ from the rooftops” (Gallucci).

“That’s right, people. It’s only April, but “vaxed and waxed” has already emerged as *the* saying of the summer. People are tweeting the phrase, sharing the news with group chats, and adding the disclaimer to their dating app bios to let everyone know that not only are they fully vaccinated and ready to have a “Shot Girl Summer,” but they’re also waxed and ready to return to the dating scene.”

Galluci, Nicole

For the ladies especially, no “Hot Vax Summer” would be complete without being “Vaxed and Waxed” but according to writer Sam Reed, this “doesn’t have to be literal – it’s an energy. A feeling. It’s the confidence that overcomes you as you’re leaving your Brazilian appointment and everything is, for lack of a better word, sensitive. It’s Hot Girl Summer but for a post-Covid world, where the stakes for a good time are higher than a Project Runway catwalk. It is new, it is fresh, is ready for whatever” (‘Vaxxed and Waxed’ Is the New Hot Girl Summer).

The phrase has found its way into merchandise and apparel. Etsy has a line of “vaxed and waxed” T-shirts, socks, caps and tumblers. The Staying Alive Brand sells a line of T-shirts on Amazon featuring this motif and the description reads “this Vaxed and Waxed apparel is the perfect design for anyone person ready to tell the world you’re vaccinated and ready for action.”

Etsy: Vaxxed and Waxed Unisex T-Shirt

Country rock band Country Grits and the Dicks released the song “Vaxed and Waxed” on July 16, 2021.

courtesy of Pixs:sell

Social Media Trends as of May 25, 2022

Facebook #vaxedandwaxed: 1,100 people are posting about this
Instagram #vaxedandwaxed: 3,156 posts
TikTok #vaxedandwaxed: 1.5 million views

Google Trends: “vaxed and waxed” first appeared in April 2021 just as the phrase started to become mainstream. It reached its peak during the week of May 16, 2021 when people were planning their summer vacations.

vaxed and waxed search term

Sources:

Country Grits and the Dicks. “Vaxed and Waxed.” YouTube. July 16, 2021. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8kRYCFKBro.

Country Grits and the Dicks. “Vaxed and Waxed” lyrics. Musixmatch. July 16, 2021. URL: https://www.musixmatch.com/lyrics/Country-Grits-the-Dicks/Vaxxed-and-Waxed.

Galluci, Nicole. “The people have spoken: ‘Vaxed and waxed’ is the summer 2021 motto.” Mashable.com. April 19, 2021. URL: https://mashable.com/article/vaxed-waxed-hot-girl-summer-meme.

pixs:sell. “Vaxxed Waxed Ready to Party drink drunk drinking” image. Adobe.com. File no: 437297156.

Reed, Sam. “Vaxxed and Waxed” Is the New Hot Girl Summer.” InStyle.com. May 7, 2021. URL: https://www.instyle.com/beauty/vaxxed-and-waxed-hot-girl-summer.

Smiedt, David. “Vaxxed and waxed: 2021’s sexiest travel trend.” Escape.com. May 13, 2021. URL: https://www.escape.com.au/news/2021s-sexiest-travel-trend/news-story/ce8a486ce139942608526295d52ff5d5.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art Pandemic Relationships

Hot Vax Summer

Get that shot, make it hot
Everybody get your card out
Take your mask off
Stick your tongue out
Get your taste back
Shake that ass
It’s a Hot Vax Summer

Wallet Jackson (2021)


It’s been almost a year since vaccinated Americans were ready to go outside once more and celebrate the summer after months of being cooped up indoors, under lockdown, quarantined and fear of catching Covid-19 – hence the phrase “Hot Vax Summer.”

The earliest reference to this phrase is an article published on March 25, 2021 for Scary Mommy: “Adults both partnered and single reported little desire to get it on, whether due to a lack of dating options in quarantine or increased stress thanks to trying to manage work, family, and everything else on top of, you know, worrying about you and your loved ones contracting a deadly virus – but it seems the tides, they are a-changin’, because “hot vax summer” is upon us” (Tschinkel). The article describes the challenges caused by lockdown and quarantine and how people can’t wait to “abandon Zoom and socially distanced meet-ups” so they can actually hang out with people in person and connect with them. Many people were stuck indoors, afraid to go out for fear of catching Covid-19 and some put their dating life on the back burner for over a year. With the freedom that vaccines brought, many felt it was time to go out and let their hair down to enjoy a hot vax summer.

An article published on May 29, 2021 for CNN said “This weekend kicks off ‘Hot Vax Summer,’ an unofficial term meaning that vaccinated Americans are ready to go wild and make up for lost time. We’re going on vacation again, drinking heavily (still), dressing up and eating out” (Valinsky). Dating, happy hour, wining and dining and music concerts were some of the activities people were looking forward to.

The phrase “Hot Vax Summer” is the name of a popular song released in 2021 featuring artists Wallet Jackson and Avocado Banks. They have a website of the same name here where you can download a free “Hot Vax Summer” wallpaper for your cellphone and buy a “Hot Vax Summer” T-shirt with some of the proceeds going to UNICEF to assist with procuring vaccines for countries that can’t afford them.

Social Media Trends as of May 24, 2022

Facebook #hotvaxsummer: 2,500 people are posting about this
Instagram #hotvaxsummer: 8,130 posts
TikTok #hotvaxsummer: 2.5 million views
YouTube #hotvaxsummer: less than 100 videos and channels

Google Trends: “hot vax summer” first appeared during the week of March 21, 2021 and reached its peak that summer before leveling off.

Hot Vax Summer search term

Sources:

Content Discontent. “Hot Vax Summer (official lyric video).” YouTube. April 23, 2021. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkbrHMPxKLY.”

HOT VAX SUMMER (feat. Wallet Jackson & Avocado Banks) Lyrics.” Lyrics.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2022. URL: https://www.lyrics.com/lyric-lf/6015759/Wallet+Jackson/HOT+VAX+SUMMER+%28feat.+Wallet+Jackson+%26+Avocado+Banks%29.

Tschinkel, Arielle. “‘Hot Vax Summer’ Is Coming, Because We All Deserve Human Touch After 2020.” Scary Mommy. March 25, 2021. URL: https://www.scary
mommy.com/covid-vaccine-hot-vax-summer.

Valinksy, Jordan. “7 signs that summer is about to be lit.” CNN. May 29, 2021. URL: https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/29/business/summer-2021-back-to-normal/index.html.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art Remote Working

Zoom & Zooming

When office workers were allowed to work from home during lockdown, Zoom became the #1 app for communicating with coworkers but it wasn’t just employees that benefited. Quarantined families could use Zoom to stay in touch with each other and for some events like funerals, Zoom was the only way to say goodbye to our loved ones. This situation was something I experienced when my grandmother died abroad and I could not travel out of the country to attend her funeral due to lockdown and quarantine restrictions in both countries.

An article published on April 29, 2020 for the Philadelphia Inquirer, by the Angry Grammarian, discusses how the pandemic has changed our language and how zoom, a video conferencing app, has become a verb (Barg).

Zooming appears in the Urban Dictionary as “the act of holding a conference call using the Zoom app during the Coronavirus pandemic.

-Mom: Son, go outside, it’s warm.
Son: I can’t, Mom. I’m Zooming with my physics class” (Licensed_nerd).


Some turned Zoom into an art form. Rosetta, a painter who lives in Ontario, Canada, used her Zoom calls to paint portraits of her friends who also happened to be artists themselves. Check out the interview below:

courtesy of KnowYourMeme

Social Media Trends as of May 23, 2022

Because the Zoom app existed prior to the pandemic, I won’t get any meaningful social media results using the #zoom hashtag, despite its use as a verb. Google Trends showed negligible interest in the zoom search term until the second week of March 2020 when it started to go vertical and reached its peak during the first week of April that year. It’s no coincidence that lockdown was in progress then and people and employers were looking for video conferencing apps to stay in touch with family and coworkers. Zoom also happens to be free to use and requires little setup.

Sources:

Barg, Jeffrey. The Angry Grammarian. “How coronavirus made ‘zoom’ a verb and other ways the pandemic has changed our language.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. April 29, 2020. URL: https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/coronavirus-covid-zoom-pandemic-words-linguistic-20200429.html.

CBC News. “Painter turns pandemic Zoom calls into art.” YouTube. March 11, 2021. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlwyjEz5U2M.

“Finally understood what Zoom meetings remind me of. ” Know Your Meme. May 14, 2020. URL: https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1850422-zoom.

Licensed_nerd. “Zooming.” Urban Dictionary. March 25, 2020. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Zooming.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art Virus

Quarantine

Quarantine: “A form of living hell during Covid-19 where we have to stay home and live a very shitty life style and our mental health is affected. We also can’t see our friends or anyone for a long time. We are also out of school and everything.” Also known as a “Cornteen,” the American spelling of quarantine (Urban Dictionary).

We’re in Year 3 of the pandemic and most of us have probably quarantined at least once. It’s a strategy designed to prevent transmission of coronavirus by having those who had close contact with an infected person stay apart from others and having their movements restricted to see if they get sick. Many governments imposed quarantines on people who traveled abroad or even across state lines. Typically the quarantine period was 14 days though this has changed as more people are vaccinated.

The UVA Health website has a glossary of pandemic terms, and for quarantine it says it “is sometimes called ‘isolation.’ Quarantines keep people away from each other to prevent the spread of disease. Stay-at-home orders are a type of quarantine” (Glossary of Terms).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, if you were exposed to someone with Covid-19 you should remain home and quarantine for 5 days while wearing a mask around others in the home. You are advised not to travel. After five days you should get tested and watch for symptoms for 10 days from the day you last had contact with someone diagnosed with Covid-19. You do not need to quarantine if you have been fully vaccinated or you previously tested positive for Covid-19 within the last 90 days (Quarantine and Isolation).

Alessi Ayvaz, staff writer for The Californiam recently wrote an article on how the pandemic has changed our lexicon: “If I asked each one of you reading this article the exact difference between quarantine and isolation before and after the pandemic, I am almost certain that you would have had to look up the definitions before (and hopefully not research as much now, whether or not you’ve had your own experiences in the La Loma dorms in Foothill). The CDC defines quarantine as “separating” and “restricting” people possibly exposed to an infection to see if they do become sick, whereas isolation is separating those who are confirmed to be sick from those who are not.“

So what did people do when stuck in quarantine? LoveThyNerd website published a “Nerdy Quarantine Resource Mega List” for nerds which had information on quarantine info, groups to play games with on Facebook, exercising for nerds, coloring pages and online conventions for those in quarantine.

On March 26, 2020 veteran U.S. Army Ranger Mat Best and country artist Tim Montana wrote the song “Quarantine.” As of May 2, 2022 the song has received over 4.5 million views.

“Quarantine, quarantine, Drinking whiskey like vaccine, Waving at the neighbors, Social distancing.”

image submitted by brovarky

Social Media Trends as of May 1, 2022

Facebook #quarantine: 3.9 million people are posting about this
Instagram #quarantine: 29,963,299 posts
TikTok #quarantine: 78.7 billion views
YouTube #quarantine: 304,000 videos and 138,000 channels

Google Trends: quarantine achieved peak popularity during the week of October 25, 2020.

quarantine search term

Sources

Ayvaz, Alessi. “From herd immunity to ‘maskne’: How the COVID-19 pandemic has changed our English lexicon.” The Daily Californian. April 14, 2022. URL: https://www.dailycal.org/2022/04/14/from-herd-immunity-to-maskne-how-the-covid-19-pandemic-has-changed-our-english-lexicon/.

Brovarky. “Quarantine.” Adobe.com. File no: 324143620.

Caouette, April-Lyn. “Nerdy Resource Quarantine Mega List.” Love Thy Nerd. April 10, 2020. URL: https://lovethynerd.com/nerdy-quarantine-resource-mega-list/.

“Coronavirus & COVID-19: Glossary of Terms.” University of Virginia. URL: https://uvahealth.com/services/covid19-glossary.

Goth Doll. “Cornteen.” Urban Dictionary. October 19, 2020. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cornteen.

“Quarantine” a song by Mat Best and Tim Montana. YouTube. March 26, 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3xpRZITi2w.

“Quarantine and Isolation.” Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention. March 30, 2022. URL: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html#quarantine.

Thesavageofall. “Quarantine.” The Urban Dictionary. March 29, 2020. URL: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Quarantine.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art Virus

Lockdown

Who of us is not familiar with the term “lockdown,” that isolating experience shared across the globe by billions of people? The term came into common usage early in 2020 as governments around the world instituted tough measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Shutterstock: Fiza Studio

Lockdown became the “2020 Word of the Year” according to Collins Dictionary. An article for BBC News states that “lexicographers registered more than 250,000 usages of “lockdown” during 2020, up from just 4,000 last year.”

In a November 11, 2020 blog post, the Collins Dictionary says: “So what about the word of the year itself? “Lockdown”, with its heavy, clunking syllables and heavier associations, is the condition we’ve most dreaded in 2020 – a state of national stasis, where almost everything that constitutes normal public life is suspended. Under lockdown, our waking hours get a lot smaller. We return to a simpler state – which some have, in fact appreciated – but it’s a far more restricted one. We see few people, and fewer places. We’re quite literally housebound. It’s not a shock to remember, then, that lockdown was originally a piece of prison vocabulary: it’s when inmates are confined to their cells because of some disturbance on the wing. 2020 is year that the meaning of the word shifted irrevocably: in most people’s minds, lockdown is now a public health measure – its use having increased exponentially since 2019.“

So, what did people do during lockdown? Some teenagers got together and created an event series called Lockdown “that follows a group of bored quarantined teens working together online to solve a mystery involving one of their neighbors – a mystery which ultimately places them all in danger.“


The author of this blog built a gym in his basement and made a vegetable plot in his garden. Others got creative and started blogging about their experiences during lockdown. A September 20, 2020 article for the New York Times reports on one 86 year old woman who started a blog: “Not long after the coronavirus sent her country into lockdown and brought an abrupt end to life as she’d known it, Hazell Jacobs, 86, awoke in her south London home ready to start something new. She opened a closet and began pulling out a collection of scarves – hundreds of them, gathered over decades of travels around the world. There were countless memories stitched into their hems, each silky expanse a story waiting to be told. Ms. Jacobs sat down, and began to write what soon became Scarf Aid, a blog Ms. Jacobs has faithfully maintained…soon the emails and comments began to come in from fans around the world…Some of her closest friends were struggling under the weight of isolation. ‘I’m used to supporting others,’ she said. ‘So I thought, that’ll be my role, to cheer people up,’ noting that a lot her friends have felt very down” (Purtill).

Social Media Trends as of May 17, 2022

Facebook #lockdown: 4,700,000 million people are posting about this
Instagram #lockdown: 21,126,508 posts
TikTok #lockdown: 44.3 billion views
YouTube #lockdown: 1,100,000 videos and 311,000 channels

Google Trends: Lockdown is not a new word but its meaning changed during the pandemic. It registered as a small blip during the week of March 1, 2020 and within two weeks it reached its peak before tailing off that summer as much of the world was under lockdown and knew what the new definition of the word meant. Even though it was voted “2020 Word of the Year”, it’s certainly not a cause for celebration as it affected everyone, in different ways, from how we worked, attended school and socialized.

lockdown search term

Sources:

“Covid-19: ‘Lockdown’ declared Collins Dictionary word of the year.” BBC News. 10 November 2020. URL: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-54878910.

Fisa Studio. “coronavirus lockdown symbol. Coronavirus pandemic puts countries on lockdown. Stop Covid-19. Isolated Vector Icon.” Shutterstock.com. Standard License. Royalty-free stock vector ID: 1675752562.

“Lockdown.” YouTube Originals For Kids and Family. YouTube. November 19, 2020. URL: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUxtB8Ph9xFROkedqxUc9g_CxrxmRFzuB.

Purtill, Corinne. “In Lockdown, an 86-Year-Old Blogger Finds an Audience and a New Purpose.” The New York Times. September 27, 2020. URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/27/us/lockdown-blogger-finds-an-audience-covid-quarantine-scarf-aid.html.

“Word of the Year 2020 Blog.” Collins Dictionary.com. 10 November 2020. URL: https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/the-year-of-lockdown/.

Categories
Pandemic Pandemic Art

Quaranteen

No, its not “quarantine.” Having teens myself, I can vouch that this is a word I’ve used and not one I made up. It appears in the online Macmillan Dictionary as “a teenager who survived Covid-19 or a child who survived and became a teenager in this decade.” The entry has an example of how the term is used: “The quaranteens, Jed and Joe, were finally let out of isolation after the virus outbreak.”

The term has made its way into mainstream media. An article written by Susan Leighton for the website Fandom says “Michael Myers has been trying to stay busy since being sidelined due to COVID-19. Quaranteen, a fun video spoof takes a look at the horror icon behind closed doors.”

Mike Myers in “Quaranteen”

During lockdown, nine teenagers in the United States decided to write a collaborative book entitled “QuaranTEEN” which describes their experiences during lockdown. The book was published on August 17, 2020 and can be ordered from Amazon. The introduction is as follows: “In March 2020, the United States effectively shut down. A new coronavirus, COVID-19, swept the globe and everyone was told to stay at home until further notice. Although the unprecedented quarantine affected everyone, there was one group that seemed particularly impacted–teenagers. No longer able to go to school, participate in sports, or visit with their friends, the situation was a significant challenge for them.This collaborative book was created to give teens a positive, proactive project during this time…Each of their stories provides their unique perspective of this moment in time as well as the lessons they have learned along the way.“

In 2020 two teens living in the San Francisco Bay Area created Quaranteen.net, a resource to “provide a creative outlet for children, teenagers, and adults to share their projects, hobbies, and boredom busters, a place for working parents to share tips on childcare and find activities/videos for their kids, and a place to provide guidelines on how to stay safe during this time, as well as links and resources on how you can volunteer or what you can do to help people during the pandemic.” The website has a section for individuals to blog about their experiences. Even though lockdowns have been lifted in the United States, they are still in effect in other countries and you never know when they may be mandated here again, so this is website is a good resource.

Social Media Trends as of May 16, 2022

Facebook #quaranteen: 15,000 people are posting about this
Instagram #quaranteen: 32,837 posts
TikTok #quaranteen: 21.7 million views
YouTube #quaranteen: 393 videos and 155 channels

Google Trends: quaranteen appeared as a small blip on Google Trends during February 2020. This was probably because Covid-19 appeared in China before it spread to the United States and this country was the first to implement mandatory quarantine procedures. When the pandemic reached America the following month, the popularity of the term quickly went vertical, reaching its peak during the week of March 15, 2020, when the U.S. implemented quarantine mandates, stay-at-home orders and virtual school.

quaranteen search term

Sources

Leighton, Susan. “Michael Myers stars in Quaranteen: The night he stayed home.” Fansided. Minute Media. 2021. URL: https://1428elm.com/2020/07/06/michael-myers-quaranteen-stayed-home/.

Myers, Mike. “Quaranteen.” YouTube. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6zzrfPd7Z8.

“Quaranteen.” MacMillan Dictionary. Submitted by Elinor. April 6, 2020. URL: https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/quaranteen.

“QuaranTEEN: Our New Normal: Nine Teenagers Share Their Experience of a Worldwide Pandemic.” Authors: Kelli O’Brien Corasanti, Brady Durkin, Eva Fahrenkrog, Brook Holman, Lauren Kern, Chase Lormand, Chris Selvarajah, Jeremy Selvarajah, Helen Treacy, Mia Conca. Independently published (August 17, 2020). URL: https://www.amazon.com/QuaranTEEN-Teenagers-Experience-Worldwide-Pandemic/dp/B08FSMPK21.

“QuaranTEEN.” 2020. URL: https://www.qteen.net/.