Let the eyes do the talking

Last year, same time, same day, if someone would have told me that I would not be able to flaunt my smile all the time, I would have laughed it off with all my whites showing. Enter 2020, the demon called Coronavirus wreaked unprecedented havoc on all our lives.Following social distancing all the time, not being able to give a tight hug to someone we love, are challenges we deal with day in and day out. Accompanying all of this is the challenge of communicating with a face cover on.

Wearing a face cover all the time was unlike anything we had experienced before, but being humans, pliancy came automatically. The importance of nonverbal communication brought itself into the limelight at this time.

Facial expressions are indeed the most abundant cues of nonverbal communication. With our mouths being always covered by a mask, we’ve come to a point where our eyes communicate how we feel. While in a normal world eye contact has made certain people fret, looking down while talking to elders has been a norm & seen as a sign of respect, it is interesting to see how people are coping up with expressing through their eyes.

Women have started spending more on flashy eyeshadows, eyeliners, and mascaras. The sales of these products have gone up by 42% in India post lockdown. Flirting with simple eye contact instead of passing a smile has become a run of the mill observation.

Varying the tone and pitch to make a better delivery, learning the distinction that is between impressive eye contact and an uncomfortable gaze, using the brows to express more, all these are the nuances of the innovation in communication that this pandemic has thrown at our face.

Psychologists suggest that being over-expressive might just be the way to go! Talking more, expressing more, picking up on the body language, and making proper eye contact in our own personal ways as an individual are the minuscule innovations that we’re all doing and evolving on a daily basis.