Is wearing a mask becoming trendy? To wear or not to wear? The million dollar question……
With mask mandates slowly loosening across the country some are choosing to keep masking.
For good reason I suppose. I personally have gotten really used to masking and it feels less germy when you’re out and about touching door handles and credit card machines.
IS MASKING THE NEW NORM? HOW LONG WILL YOU KEEP MASKING?
To think we did this without masks seems a little unconscionable at this point. Well not really.
It was a different world and things truly seem to have changed since the pandemic.
We’re less social. We don’t make eye contact with people out and about like we used to and my theory is perhaps because our smiles have become all together invisible.
It’s hard to tell what’s going on behind the mask. Is that a frown that needs to turn upside down or do those piercing eyes of the stranger next to you in line at Starbucks suggest a resting bitch face under the mask?
Who’s to say?
THE DOWNSIDE TO MASKING
And while there is a part of me that is being facetious about it all I have definitely gotten used to masking and do appreciate the thought of people making my food especially masking. That seems like a really novel idea cause I’ve seen spit fly one too many times in a restaurant.
Okay. Okay. I know. T.M.I., but hey I’m sure you feel me.
While it’s been protocol and I’m not much of a resistor when it comes to the greater good of all I just went with it, but at this stage in the game if I’m to be completely honest I’m over the mask and I’m ready to fly free again like a maskless dove floating about like I used to.
I love smiling at strangers and connecting with unknowns in a random exchange wherever. I like people. I love them and no I’m not afraid of strangers and I embrace the idea of being free of social anxiety and penetrating the spaces I enter with warmth, love, friendliness, smiles and generally some jokes followed by laughter.
I’m good with it. Although it seems a lot of people now more than ever are just so uptight and the mask is just another opportunity to stay disconnected from the rest of the world and distance yourself from others.
I don’t see the world that way and I feel we need to get back to seeing each other, smiling, connecting and spreading cheer.
MASKING TRENDS
However there is a good chunk of people who like the idea of masking not for the sake of safety or protocol or guidelines, but simply for the sake of masking.
It’s becoming a little bit or a lot of a fashion trend.
And the beauty of it all, the humor of it all is we’ve got options.
The go to is the obvious N95 proven to be the most effective mask. I like that they’ve made them a little stylish now. They look better and they definitely give you good coverage
Well many people think so. It is a new norm and we do get to add a bit of personal flair to how and what we don on our faces.
I had some cute handmade cloth masks in the beginning, but as the data continued surfacing we were advised against cloth coverings and I upgraded to evolve together masks which seem to do a better job at trapping the virus.
Our options are limited and so many companies, mask makers in particular have seen a sort of gold rush through the pandemic.
They’ve been on point to get creative and offer more and more of a variety knowing people want things that reflect them and their personalities.
So wether it’s a cloth mask with unicorns, or a Home Depot construction mask or an embroidered one with lace we’ve got options.
Now it’s up to us to choose to mask or not to mask.
Even after it’s all said and done for many they take comfort in this new norm. They like the idea of masking for the anonyonymity it provides. The way we can shield ourselves from the world. We are practically in hiding cause it’s pretty hard to tell who we are when we’re out and about unless someone really knows you, knows your strut, feels your presence and your energy and without a shadow of a doubt just really know it’s you under that sequins mask.
Check out this other article here about a business owner in Mendocino who was imposing $5 for anyone wearing a mask.
