The mask brings an opportunity to hide vulnerabilities innate to our physical form. That we are accountable to the actions of the body is an intrinsic consequence of the ability for one to be identified. Repeating the ritual of suppressing that ability also ambiguates one's experience, conception of self, and conception of reality as a whole.
As the human face is an interface through which it's plausible that the densest data can be exchanged, as not only does it rapidly provide a path to large sets of metadata, but it also provides a dynamic and continuous stream of output containing potent indicators of emotive and physiological state heavily impacting the context of environment and probabilities of an ever-changing set of outcomes.
As we alter the standard of social interaction by means which constrain the use of our most significant and stimulating junction, we facilitate focus on increasingly detached and arbitrary endpoints. This means a reality where humans are less able to recognize one another's unique form, state of being, and viability in this world, and one where we are more readily invited to indulge in directing our minds to matters of import to one's ego.
Oh, the irony of bringing about an industrial revolution, in the name of altruism and humanity, whose effect is to isolate us in chambers of vanity so easily believed to be virtue.