What do you think about face masks?

Do you wear a face mask, and have you gotten used to it? I do wear one but only about once a week since I don't go out that often.

Personally I thought I'd hate it but I've kind of gotten used to it. And in a way it eases my anxiety since it's hard to see my face or emotions. It's kind of like being anonymous.

But in a way I don't like them. They are hot and I feel bad for people that have to wear them all day.

Also I'm getting worried that since some people refuse to wear them, that they'll be made mandatory. Which I'm actually ok with, since I understand the reason we need to wear them. But at the same time I'm afraid they'll still be required even after this pandemic (hopefully) ends in a few years. And I absolutely refuse to wear them for the rest of my life after the virus ends, especially when it's hot out like right now. I'm afraid they'll start saying, "well what if someone has the flu or a cold during cold season, so we should just wear them forever." Or the health insurance will start saying they won't cover respiratory, heart, or lung treatments if they found you aren't wearing a mask when you go out.

Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I don't know.

But overall I've gotten used to the masks, but at the same time I'm already tired of them, and that they are a constant reminder of the virus. Plus they just look silly, to me outside of a dental or surgical setting. The fabric patterned ones like I have look alright, but the medical type are just so ugly. I just hope the whole world doesn't become like parts of Asia where they have to wear them all the time due to pollution. But the way things are going lately, I feel like it could happen.

They're hard to breathe in and they fog up my glasses but other than that, I have much bigger things to worry about than what they look like or anything else. My parents and I are in high-risk groups. I've read about what happens both to the serious cases and the long-lasting health damage of (so-called) "MILD" cases. I would actually feel better if masks were made mandatory and people were fined for not wearing them in hazardous areas, at least for now. Too few places, even places that "require" people to wear them, aren't enforcing those rules. There are studies that say if like 80% of people wore them, this whole mess would die down a lot more quickly. But nope, people are selfish and don't think they could possibly get sick or die. Until it actually happens to them.

I have to wear them for work everyday so no I hate them lol

I want to breathe O2

I agree. Although, I read that during the 1918 pandemic, at least one city made them mandatory and issued fines for people who didn't wear them or even jail time I think for repeat offenders.

I wear them and my whole family has been wearing them, as far as I know. The need for them I understand, it's just like all of us I wish we didn't need to wear them, because that would mean this was over.

I don't go out but I have an N-95 one like this....



Unfortunately it has the one-way valve which is nice if you're using it for sawdust but not great for pandemic because (although it protects me) it does not keep whatever I exhale from going out through the blowhole. So I do wear it when I'm in the hallway bringing in groceries. I have thought about blocking off the blowhole with hot glue.

It would be nice if I could just buy some proper N-95s off Amazon or something but nope. Apparently stopping a pandemic isn't important enough to figure out how to mass produce paper masks and convince anyone who can understand language that it's important to wear one.

I have to wear one at work and at first hated it. It still sucks because I can't breathe in it, but now that I bought ones that fit my face right I don't mind it that much. Sometimes I even like that it covers me up on days I don't really want people looking at me.

For awhile just about everyone was wearing them around here, but now people are getting lazy and I see a bunch of people not wearing them. Angers me when these same people are not practicing social distancing or stand around talking to other people while in your way.

Like you, the masks help my anxiety some. Hope it is making me harder to recognize, but probably not. At least a lot of people who would've bothered me are less likely to harass me because of social distancing. Sucks I can't go shopping at 2 or 3 in the morning to avoid people anymore tho.

At first it kind of creeped me out to see people wearing masks. Now I'm kind of used to it.

I can tolerate wearing a mask for a short while but don't think I could stand wearing one all day. My friend made like 150 masks and sent me a few of them. I couldn't breathe in them, so I ended up ordering surgical masks which are more flimsy. I know they don't really protect me but they do protect other people, so if everyone wears them it's quite effective.

I'm an office worker and have been working from home which is fine since the customer service people (CST) have been scanning stuff for me that comes in the mail and I now have a printer at home. CST are still coming into the office (and a handful of others). They are the ones that answer the phones, collect/sort the mail, and do various simple admin stuff. Since most everyone got kicked out of the office, they have been now tasked with scanning almost everything that comes in the mail and then emailing it to the appropriate parties. If my company later says "you have to come back to the office and wear a mask all day" I'll tell them to screw off. May as well just continue working at home if we all have to stay six feet away from each other. The whole point of working in the office is for collaboration with coworkers, especially training new employees.

Most of us are sipping on coffee, water, or energy drinks all day so not sure how wearing a mask would work. So far the boss guy has mentioned maybe some people coming back to the office in July- 25% capacity, must wear masks when not at your desk. Even having to wear a mask when not at my desk would be annoying. I'm constantly on the move- going to the bathroom, going to the kitchen for a snack/coffee, going to the communal printer. He said he will send everyone a questionnaire or survey. Think he is going to ask if we really need to be in the office or not. If it weren't for the mask thing, I wouldn't mind coming in once a week or so for printing and filling purposes. But if I have to wear mask then once a month is enough, well as long as CST keeps scanning the mail for me.

I know our department head doesn't like that we are not in the office, even though she is a pretty relaxed supervisor. Think they had issues in the past where a worker went off the rails when she was working at home all the time. Just started producing crap. I've seen that with a few of the managers that were working from home most days of the week even before this started. Don't answer emails, don't do the requests you send them, can't bug them in person, but supposedly "working" from home, LOL. More like eating bonbons on the sofa from home judging by their lack of responsiveness and huge butts.

I just hope they don't make it a requirement to wear a mask when outside. I understand when inside stores and on public transit but outside is such low risk. I think there are some areas that have made it mandatory. Some part of California. Perhaps certain other countries.

Even in places where mask is mandatory outdoors, many don't follow them, and it's not enforced. I've been breaking the rule daily myself during runs. It's torturous to wear it during so. While walking I can tolerate.

It does look like face shields are starting to trend. So I might try to get some before they become very popular and sell out. And they seem much ventilating and friendly with reusability and cleanability.

Speaking of which, last time we were bringing in groceries, about halfway through, my dad decided he had to go poop and disappeared abruptly. I found myself standing there by the door huffing and puffing with sweat beading up on my lips inside the damn mask. We made that grocery order TWO DAYS ahead of time and he had all morning to do whatever he had to do before 10 AM delivery time. But NO! He had to wait till just then to poop!

I don't enjoy wearing them but I do. I have been avoiding going to bigger stores and sticking to smaller stores so I don't have to spend as much time wearing it. Work gave me a few procedure type ones. I tried the cloth ones and they are really uncomfortable. They require them at work but luckily I am still allowed to work from home since face to face services are still on hold. When I do go into work I go way before when they open, but I still put on the mask when I enter the building. I do take it off once I am in my office.

do you do you do you do you do you ??

connecting the dotties?

just spewing words all over the place.

WHY? what..?? YOU.. YOU... uhhh.. all of You & more of you and you.. + also the.. thinky thingy???

create a thread / idea without trivial word explosion?
single-syllable, neanderthal words. uh.

just "Face Masks"


if this your nature? why not another 500 word prelude, introduction? those 5 words! pick them apart. what does each one mean? how potent? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5? Plodding... mind at 0.000.1Hz what's behind the "what" word? why add "DO"?? + a "YOU"! then, sit there, how many hours / days to compile that? later on.. considering even adding the "Think" word! why? why not hundreds more words to go? slug? those 5 words. each take a week to develop the idea? like a moonwalk.. yep! another wordie.. which one? reach a limit? "about" the most fascinating expression!

each sentence takes me zero seconds to read/parse fully. but such a bland sentence containing just primitive components, i can only move in slowest motion, how that author was thinking.. uh..

uh... many hours to dream of a word to insert..

I haven’t really gone anywhere for the last few months, but when I do, I wear a mask.

When no one else wears one, I feel like I might look like I’m going to rob a bank or do something else that is bad. I don’t like not being able to get fresh air while I’m wearing one, and they annoy me to start with because they make my glasses foggy, but that stops happening after a while.

I have three fabric masks, and I want to make my own, which I’ll do once I buy what I need.
My dad does that every week after shopping. My mum thinks he does it so he doesn’t have to bring the shopping in.

No don't wear one, natural selection all the way <a href="http://www.socialanxietysupport.com/forum/images/smilies/lol.gif" border="0" alt="" title="" >:-)</a>....... I wonder are people considering how they're disposing of these things when they are done or the wider impact on the enviroment ? Probably not as usual.

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ds-up-in-ocean

No the only time I wore one was when I was in the hospital to have the test a while ago and they made me put it on. I told the nurses there I didn't know how they wore them all the time - they feel terrible. They said you get used to it.

We're not advised to wear them here - not yet anyway. Low transmission rates among the population. I think they said people should start wearing them if they get the trains etc but it'll still be a while before i do that. I haven't been anywhere much except food shopping since it started and often I get that delivered now too. I bought a few a while ago when I went past the chemist and they cost 10 bucks for 4, probably would have been 10 dollars for a whole box before this.

Here's the same, though some people wear them anyway.

I've been wearing a face mask for approx 7 weeks now, as it's required in shops and on public transport over here.

At first, it was very annoying because of the difficulties with breathing and fogging up your glasses. Plus it felt kind of awkward!

You could also quickly notice that it got adapted as simply a fashion gadget and many people obviously didn't really get the actual idea behind having to wear them:

Many wore them while driving alone with their car or walking alone in nature. Others constantly leave their nose poking out or constantly touch the mask or fiddle around with it!

And I can't help but feel like people are now babbling more than ever with each other, too! Maybe it's a skip action!?
(But then, I'm a bit overly sensitive when being stuck on public transport or in some queue and forced to overhear other's mundane conversations.)

But now I've gotten used to them, know how to adjust them for no fogging and actually appreciate them and even forget to take them off when leaving the shop or public transport.
I also feel less exposed in public and therefore more relaxed.

I prefer wearing the surgical masks to those homemade masks. The pattern ones make it seem like a fashion accessory and not a health care/hygiene product. We call those "community masks."

I wouldn't mind that much, if we had to continue wearing them in crowded places! Or during flu season!

I'm often grossed out by people's increasing lack of sense of courtesy and general hygiene! Like ruthlessly coughing, sneezing right behind you, constantly picking around in faces, noses ears... Not regularly properly washing their hands. Ughhh!

I don't mind wearing one though it would/will be nice to go back to normal not having wear one. I'm kind of used to wearing one for various things around the farm. The one I've been wearing out I used last year for putting up fiberglass insulation and it turns out to be a N95 without a valve. I know they are only supposed to be worn once or a couple times before thy are supposedly no longer good whatever that means. I don't know what's supposed to happen to them to make them ineffective. I've been operating under the idea that it's still better to wear the old N95 than a non N95 mask. Also I've been wearing my weakest readers to hopefully offer some eye protection.

Well, most likely the reason they recommend using a new one each time is because these things were designed before they were so hard to come by that they're basically gold in any condition. So the instructions likely say not to keep wearing the same one because nasty stuff builds up in there due to proximity to mouth and nose.