Anyone else find life weirdly a lot easier with face masks?

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I hope I'm not the only one who feels like this, but for some reason, wearing a face mask outside has made it easier for me to interact with people. I think its the fact that I'm not being scrutinized more my RBF and there's a bit less pressure to decipher others' facial expressions (which I could never do anyway). Also, my tendency to talk to myself (or at least mouth what I'm thinking) no longer gets me looks.

Aside from fogging up my glasses, face masks have weirdly been a blessing for me, at least socially. Shame it took a global viral outbreak for me to see the perks of a mask.

Yes, I'm no longer self-conscious about my facial expressions, it's an introverts dream. I hope this practice gets adopted as part of our culture even after the pandemic is over, like Japan.

I don’t like to feel like I’m constantly in an operating room.

It’s both a good thing and a bad thing for me. Good - I don’t have to constantly monitor my facial expression to make sure it won’t draw attention or give the wrong impression, and as an added bonus it covers up most of my bad skin. Bad - trying to find a position that doesn’t make my glasses fog too much, it slips down my nose when I speak so I have to keep pulling it back up, and it makes it even harder than usual for people to understand me when I speak, plus instead of saying “hi” or something when someone greets me, I know it will most likely not be heard, so I smile in acknowledgment, which is not visible under a mask.

I have felt like life is easier. Interactions in stores seem to go more smoothly, and people are more polite to me. The only problem is I have a harder time hearing what people say and vice versa.

I'm not having as many asthma attacks since I started wearing a face-mask.

I work as a nurse in a Nursing Home (very vulnerable population to Covid). I wear a mask AND safety glasses when at work. I also wear a good quality, washable, non medical mask when I'm out and about and when shopping and stuff.

The advantages:

Protect my patient, my colleagues and myself at work (top priority);
Protect my community and myself on my own time;
People can't see me yawn when I'm tired (lol);
My sometimes not-so-professional facial expressions are hidden

The disadvantages:

My patients (who have low hearing, often dementia, etc) have trouble hearing me.
I can't use slightly exagerated facial expressions, which help a person who has low hearing or cognitive difficulties understand me and have social engagement (I use smiles and expressive eyes to communicate with many of my patients)

At work and on my off time, I also wear a chemo cap (a nice one that matches my work dresses and off duty dresses). I wear these to protect my hair. I change into my work cap and back into my off duty cap at end of shift. This way I can just rinse or condition my hair without worrying about excessive, drying shampooing. The caps also indicate to others that I MAY be immuno compromised and to not-be-a-jerk-because-I'm-wearing-a-mask. Sadly, even in Canada, we have anti-maskers,although they are much less common than in the US. Besides, on the West Coast, we are pretty laid back )

I don't mind wearing them. It gets a little hot in the summer, but, other than that, in my off time in the community - I like wearing them.

Very few people in NYC are “anti-mask.” 22,000 deaths have taught us the value of prevention.

It’s only a little bit easier. If I could mask my whole body and my voice, and anything else I could think of, it would be loads easier.

Yep! I love not having to concentrate on what my expression looks like.

I have enjoyed not feeling pressured to smile and not having to observe others smiling . I also like that it's now socially acceptable for me tell people to move away from me (not that that every stopped me before, heh). As a special bonus the mask norm has made it easy to identity a$$holes and idiots: no mask = a-hole, masks with nose out = idiot.

Of course I don't like the feeling of wearing it but the good outweighs that.

It's nice not having to show my face completely it makes me feel safe for some reason.

i will wear them as instructed, but they are SUFFOCATING and HOT! i SWEAT profusely after just a few minutes wearing those things in a typical overheated store.