A Face in the Crowd

Face blindness, communication, and neurodiversity in digital social life

“It’s so nice to see your face” is a phrase I’ve heard more in the past three weeks than I have over the sum of the last several years. When our lab shut down, we were, along with millions of others, plunged into a panicked state of suspended animation. Each morning we would check the news for newly diagnosed cases of Covid-19, new restrictions on our movement, and ad hoc guidelines for our behaviour that all seemed to come in an uncensored contradictory flood.

During this time, we worked to hastily determine who would be permitted to return to campus; to select among dozens of ongoing projects, representing years of work, only those that were “essential” to continue moving forward with. We communicated sporadically via e-mail or over the phone, when it was necessary or urgent, as daily updates informed us of how we would need to change the operation of the lab in the immediate short term. Coming together in the way we usually do in our weekly lab meetings, gathered around data figures, discussing business as usual, felt like an impossible parody in this period of time when anything further than a few weeks into the future felt so uncertain.

So after the dust began to settle, and a few concrete guidelines were set out as way posts in the…