By Analiese Wensmann

Masks are something that everyone has to live with for however long COVID is going to be around, we don’t know how long we have to wear them either. That’s where people’s preferences come into play. People have gotten bored of just what they call ‘plain and simple’ surgical masks, so what they have done is switched to wearing and making reusable fabric masks that come in all kinds of patterns, colors, sizes, etc. A lot of people like different things, no one can like the same thing as everyone else, and although everyone may seem to just be wearing masks and there’s really nothing to it, there is always an idea behind what they have on.

Some people prefer surgical masks over fabric masks. Someone named LeeAnn Partin is one of those people. She prefers the surgical masks because they “are probably better because they can be recycled back into the environment”, she believes this because she thinks that they are “more convenient” and don’t really have a chance of harming the wildlife if you end up losing your mask or dropping it out of your car.

Although there are some people who prefer surgical masks, there are a lot more who like fabric masks. Sterling Johnson prefers “the more fabric ones because they just feel better and they’re more comfortable”, he believes this because he can just reuse the fabric masks instead of throwing away a mask everyday while being comfortable at the same time.

There could also be some psychological reasons behind wearing surgical masks over fabric masks or wearing fabric masks over surgical masks, perhaps it has something to do with someone’s personality. Sterling Johnson believes that “it does have something to say about someone’s personality, because whatever they might be wearing could resemble something in their life”. What he’s saying here is depending on what someone is wearing, be it different patterned masks, plain colored, or surgical masks could have something to do with how they present themselves as a person or showing something in their personality.