Despite being in the throes of a global pandemic that has infected more than 100 million and killed over 2 million, COVID-19 parties persist. From the clandestine Baby Shower in East London to the secret DJ parties in New York City, many people seem unapologetic about their choice to flaunt the rules, break curfew, and party with family, friends, or strangers. The question is why. Why, in a world where the deadly infection is running rampant, are people willing to risk it all for a few hours of fun? While the answer to this question is multifaceted, let’s turn to sociology for some insights.
Shvets
For the past year, many people have been living drastically different lives than in 2019. With communities, states, and even entire nations going into lockdown, telecommuting, working from someplace other than the office on either a full or part-time basis, has become commonplace. In the effort to save our collective lives, many aspects of culture, the socially learned and shared ideas, behaviors, and material components of a society, have changed. The mandates to wear masks represent changes in our material culture, the physical artifacts that represent components of society. Not surprisingly, the governmental regulations behind the mask mandates are representative of our nonmaterial culture, ideas, and symbols that represent components of society. Even though the number of Americans who say they sometimes or always wear a mask is near 90%, we still find pockets of anti-mask resistance.
Part of that COVID-19 cultural shift has involved changes in our social behavior. Much of our social life and many rites of passage simply can’t be celebrated in the same way under the new COVID-19 regulations. Think about something as simple as a birthday cake. Can you safely blow out the candles without risking the lives of your friends and family? From birthdays and bars to choirs and concerts, COVID-19 restrictions affect anything that involves breathing.
Maurício Mascaro
Some people have had a hard time adapting to these changes and are still trying to “Party Like It’s 1999.” However, if we all have more empathy and think about how our actions affect others, we can see the importance of following the rules for the well-being of society as a whole. Think about the people like the grieving widow on TikTok who lost her husband to the pandemic. Think about the frontline workers who are exhausted, frustrated, and overwhelmed by their efforts to save our lives. Sociologically speaking, the term that describes this empathetic approach is verstehen (fehr-shtay-en), an empathetic approach to understanding human behavior. In the larger world, verstehen means that we look beyond the surface behavior to see the larger meaning or context of what is taking place. Maybe we need to be more empathetic with those who are afraid of losing their ways of life and those who are afraid of losing their lives. Just maybe, if we are more empathetic, we can find common ground and work as a society not against each other but against the scourge of this pandemic.
