Study: ‘This Was Back During Covid’ Uttered Average Of 96 Times Per Conversation

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN—Following a massive three-year survey looking at changing trends in American language, a new study published Tuesday by Purdue University found that the phrase “This was back during Covid” is uttered an average of 96 times per conversation. “Among all U.S. adults, the clarifying phrase ‘during Covid, yeah’ is uttered roughly once every three sentences, whether the conversation involves relating a story, commiseration over a problem, or an explanation of a personal decision,” said study coauthor Ilana Park, adding that the study also found that in 71% of cases, a person saying “This was back during Covid” quickly follows it with the sentence “Of course, Covid isn’t technically over,” to which the average conversation partner nods in knowing agreement. “Our findings concluded that across intimate conversations, group discussions, and business meetings, someone interrupts their own anecdote or assertion with the caveat phrase ‘This was during the pandemic, obviously’ roughly once every two minutes. When this happens, more than 90% of participants in such verbal encounters immediately recall a complex range of frustrations and sadnesses as memories of the global coronavirus pandemic and its attendant consequences come flooding back. In almost all cases, our study found that these unaddressed and often crippling feelings are quickly suppressed by all parties involved in order to avoid the discussion digressing from the matter at hand, or simply to keep the mood light.” The study additionally found that in cases where an utterance of “This was back during covid” was followed by an awkward lull in the conversation, 97% of the time someone present would attempt to salvage the soured mood by saying “Yeah, that was crazy.”