Whatever the situation, we’re intrigued by eye contact. Eye contact increases our pulse rate, decreases our dishonesty factor (we lie less often), increases our adherence to rules and norms and helps us to attend to subtle social cues.

In this Covid-19-world there’s a vast array of rapidly changing information. If we attend to relevant information we’re better able to assess our environment and make appropriate personal decisions. We’ve all been there, albeit for just a brief moment, as we unexpectedly catch the fleeting glance of a impressionable person. They’re wearing a protective mask while hurriedly buying that last-minute item at the grocery store or maybe standing six feet apart from you in the post office waiting to send off a special delivery package but their visual glance says “Welcome – Hello, how are you?” The best way to make a lasting impression is to make eye contact. This statement is verified by Lily Zhang a Career Development Specialist at MIT in the publication Secrets to Making Non-Awkward Eye Contact The Muse-Tools & Skills – 2018 Lily Zhang. Recent EEG work suggests that there are fundamental differences in our brain activity response to viewing another person in the same room compared to viewing that person on a computer screen. Viewing a live face with a direct gaze results in more pronounced brain processing than viewing a photograph of that same face. So, eye contact with another human being stimulates our brain activity. We respond as physical beings to another physical being when we look in another persons’ eyes.

During this period of COVID-19-social distancing and mask-wearing and goggle-donning it is vitally important to make that ever-primal gesture of communication: eye contact. Recent social psychology research suggests that we may often avoid looking at other people in real life and this effect has been recently confirmed using an eye-tracking devise. In contrast, people, and in particular their faces and eyes, strongly capture and direct attention when participants view photographs. It seems likely that people may not attend to other individuals in the same way when interacting in real life as when presented with a video. This may be something that we as individuals may want to think about since we use a cell phone to communicate with each other and, during this time of COVID-19 quarantine, may be watching more live-streaming videos instead of communicating with each other in our daily lives. In social situation, eye contact is highly informative. Looking directly at someone while their speaking, even while they’re wearing a COVID-19 protective mask, aids us in being part of the conversation. Instead of two people engaging in idle chatter or buzzing, annoying unrelated words, eye contact gels the spoken words into – wait for it, wait for it – a welcoming conversation. Since we should all be wearing protective mask during these uncertain COVID-19 times and because we all need to rely on a welcoming, friendship network, if we aren’t looking into the eyes of the people within our 6 ft.- social-distancing area how can we understand the lives and challenges of the community in which we live?

Your eyes are your “scouts.” They scan the horizon much like the advance scouts did in the days of the ole’ west when the military was traveling on maneuvers in the hot desert. Processing of the information is the same: gathering, assessing and decision making. In today’s COVID-19 environment it’s just as vital to make the correct decision with the incoming information that you receive from eye contact. We all make connections through eye contact so you may want to pay attention to the cues coming from the person you’re looking at: it’s a good idea. According to a news release on www.Today.com/health (7/13/2020), in an article from Maura Hohman the coronavirus is most commonly transmitted through the nose and mouth, but it’s also possible to get the coronavirus through your eyes. In addition to social distancing, hand washing and wearing a face mask, the use of eye protection, such as goggles, visors and face shields, may help keep infection rates low. A recent study in The Lancet indicates that the risk of COVID-19 is reduced from 16% to 5.5% on average for people who protect their eyes with goggles, face shields and other eye PPE compared with those who don’t apply any eye covering. Dr. John Torres, an NBC News correspondent, explains that whether you should take precautions to protect your eyes from the coronavirus depends on where you are. Wear glasses or goggles “if you’re in an area where you can’t practice social distancing or if you’re around people who are coughing or sneezing a lot” is a good idea. Some say that our eyes are the windows to our soul. Others indicate that our eyes are truth tellers and still others describe our eyes as the entry into the deepest corners of our mind. Our eyes may be all these things and more especially during this COVID-19 time of uncertainly. Our eyes can be a portal for acquiring a COVID-19 infection. Our eyes can be a source of receiving a welcoming greeting from a loved one or a stranger wearing a protective face mask. Our eyes can be a “scout” surveying the landscape around us searching for a friendly face or our eyes can be part of a lively conversation. Sometimes our eyes welcome home a tired family member after they have had a hard day caring for a critically ill COVID-19 patient in an ICU hospital bed. Our tired eyes can be looking through a face shield into the eyes of yet another COVID-19 dying patient for which the hospital has no bed and has had to be treated in the hallway on a gurney. Our eyes can welcome home our mommy since she’s recovered from COVID-19 and received excellent medical care. We perceive up to 80% of all impressions by means of our sight. If our other senses such as taste and smell stop working it’s the eyes that best protect us from danger (Wikipedia October 16, 2017). Our precious eyesight may be our only vanguard if we’re diagnosed with COVID-19 and lose our other responses to incoming stimuli. Our eyes invite the world. Wearing a COVID-19 protective face mask or face shield focuses us into an expressive eye-to-eye communication with that world. Weather we face a COVID-19-world shifting with fear, hate, anguish, uncertainty or love we were given 2 eyeballs for depth perception and can use the awareness to see our relationship within that world.

Our eyes welcome the world, we write the story.