Cloth masks may not be effective at stopping the spread of COVID-19, but our media, academia, and public health voices keep coming up with more reasons to wear masks: They re good for stopping the common cold, putting on a mask “reduces our anxiety” by giving us the illusion of control, masks “reduce or change interactions that might otherwise spark social anxiety,” and they “can keep that too-chatty neighbor at bay or help the introvert hide in plain sight.”
Making Eye Contact Signals a New Turn in a Conversation
scientificamerican.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from scientificamerican.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Why We Should Talk to Strangers More
theatlantic.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theatlantic.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Secret to Mastering the Art of Small Talk
Idle chitchat confers serious health benefits. Here’s how to rebuild your social muscles after months of isolation.
We spent
waaaay too much time cooped up inside with our families, with our partners, or by ourselves for the past year and a half. While that meant a total loss of solitude for some of us and an abundance of it for others quarantine also meant the disappearance of something we didn’t know we needed: random, chance encounters with other people. And science has shown that those fleeting conversations with the grocery-store clerk or a friend of a friend are actually really good for you.