William Shakespeare (Courtesy of The British Library).
Everyone knows the name William Shakespeare. His plays have influenced language and culture for centuries and continue to be referenced in pop culture today. He is the first person I am including who is globally famous and this is for good reason. Since long before COVID-19, the world has been celebrity or (with the rise of social media) "influencer" obsessed. We crave hearing stories real or not, about other people who are living much different and often grander lives to us. In my opinion, this is because we want to escape our realities and dream of something bigger—or judge it. And this has only gotten worse since the pandemic because we are spending even more time on our phones, consuming media.
To escape, or not to escape? Listen to how this need for escapism has affected me since COVID-19: