Awkward social interactions expected whenever COVID mask mandates lift in B.C.

An assistant professor at SFU is giving British Columbians a heads up that whenever mask mandates lift, we can see some clumsy conversations.

Masks are still required in indoor public spaces in B.C., but provinces like Saskatchewan and Alberta are already scrapping their mandates. B.C.’s top doctor has not indicated if or when this province will follow suit.

Kiffer Card with the Faculty of Health Sciences explains the two-plus years of wearing masks has taken its toll on people’s ability to recognize facial expressions and communicate smoothly within social settings. This is especially so considering 75 per cent of social interactions are non-verbal and humans can recognize close to a quarter-million facial expressions.

“The slight raises an eyebrow can mean something different, little twinges and your facial muscles communicate things. And throughout the pandemic that’s been missing,” he said.

Card says it’s time to prepare for an adjustment period when people strip off those masks and learn to reintegrate their communication skills.

“We use our hands more. We’ve used our eyes more expressively. We have sought to find ways to communicate in the absence of half our face being seen. And that has serious social impacts,” he told CityNews.

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He notes people have been isolated and socially disconnected in the pandemic, which can mean the loss of social skills.

“You also begin to view social situations more negatively,” he said.

“A common phenomenon that we see in the relationship between social isolation and loneliness is that people who are isolated actually interpret their social interactions more negatively, even when they might have been positive interactions. So, this is really problematic for emotional-social development [and] social reintegration … because there are these potentials for just conveying the wrong thing, or maybe not being so fine-tuned and people reading into emotions when they’re not used to it. Hopefully, as we scrape off the rust, we’ll be able to get back to more normal social cues and be able to reinterpret and read those from each other more clearly.”

There may also be some awkward interactions considering the divided perceptions of mask-use with some Canadians for and against mask-wearing.

– With files from Nikitha Martins