After staying home in isolation for so long, people have forgotten how to interact. Everyone now has a 6-foot safe bubble where they keep to themselves. With masks covering half of our faces and distance between us, something as simple as eye contact out in the wild is enough to raise our hackles and spark that fight-or-flight ability.

No more small waves and polite smiles. Instead, we keep our heads low and our eyes down and pray that the other person doesn’t make contact with us.