Plenty of people cut back on socializing, separate from whatever local lockdown policies might have been in place.

> No, it was government mandates that played hell with peoples' social lives.

What did the government mandate about your social life?

Closing restaurants, bars, and movie theaters had a negative effect on social lives as a direct result of government mandates.

Much worse than that in Germany - they literally had rules for gathering with your family with complex charts to determine with you you are allowed to meet (with single adults living on their own getting the worst of it). Utter insanity, all of it.