Dr Yousuf Ali Al mulla
A few months after COVID-19 spread and wearing face masks for a long time and adhering to measures that reduce the spread of virus, perhaps people have begun to breathe now with hope for the vaccine. But it is strange that when I wanted to return to the past months through pictures, for instance, I realized at the time that not everyone can be identified by those pictures taken while we put on face masks! It is like today, when I see people; I only see a part of the face, from forehead till nose. I really miss seeing people’s faces. I miss seeing sideways crooked mouths in indecision, exposed teeth with multiple smiles, jagged upper lips in confusion, all of it.
Are you not with me that we loved those masks at some point because it keeps us all safe and at the same time allows parents and their grandchildren to launch beautiful conversations in the same place? However, seeing the faces of family and friends virtually and through multiple contact images is much better than nothing. Perhaps it is nice to see their live faces breathing in real time. Here, I am certain that we missed the smile and the degree of communication after the mask closed it, especially during the past months.
What I mean here, while masks save lives they also create social challenges. Words alone are not sufficient to express our attitudes, feelings, thoughts, and all the other things important to create social and emotional bonds between people. Not to mention, trying to interact with other people without being able to smile is the equivalent of communicating via text messages. It’s easy to be misunderstood. Your expression and words lack context and here the person may ask: Are you disturbed with me? Is what you said an insult or a joke?
Remarkably, we must be aware that it is difficult to distinguish between different smiles, if for example, you cannot see the lower half of the face. In these situations, the person has to rely on other evidence -if I can say so-. Of course, masks do not just hide smiles; it can even make it difficult for people to show a full range of feelings including discomfort, dread or contempt. On the other hand for many, face masks can make life especially difficult, as many deaf people rely on visual cues, such as the movement of another person’s lips, to communicate and thus masks can hide this and hide speech (unless he uses the transparent types of masks!). This in fact evident when you bypass or interact with someone, however they cannot see that smile because of the mask, so you lose something that conveys to others that you are friendly and polite.
Interestingly at other times, when you make eye contact with someone and feel happy or warm towards them from the inside, this will undoubtedly create the true and sincere smile that is more likely to spread on your face. While wearing masks may also create some communication challenges. However, with a little extra effort and some increased awareness of these challenges, you can learn to make sure you get the message, just ask those you talk to if you are making sense or if they understand what you are saying. Although it may take some time and effort to clear things up, in the end there may be fewer miscommunications even with a face mask on. Especially with the realization that people may misunderstand what other people are saying if they cannot see people’s mouths moving as they speak. This is especially true for those who suffer from hearing loss and who unfortunately are at risk of anger and depression as a result of their condition.
On other hand, people here tend to interact with faces as a whole, rather than focusing on the individual traits of the person. Forgetting the fact - if you agree with me - that we do not have to be happy to smile and that in the first place we do not always smile when we are happy! Actually extensive studies have confirmed that there are 19 different types of smiles; only six of them are associated with feelings of happiness and pleasure. As for the rest, we use it when we feel fear, embarrassment and pain, among other scenarios of course.
At end, as the pandemic continues, it seems unlikely that face masks will leave anytime soon. Given this fact, may be an adaptation to wearing it is best option now beside vaccine. Perhaps the important thing is to be more aware of what might be lost during your communication while wearing a face mask. And undoubtedly in some cases a face mask can create some kind of joint bond, you wear a mask and I wear a mask ... we’re in it together!
Dr.Yousuf Ali Al Mulla is a physician, medical innovator & writer. For any queries regarding the content of the article can be contacted at: [email protected]
