Traffic light bracelets to avoid moments of embarrassment at parties and events in the second summer marked by the pandemic: they are trending in the United States where cases of contagion are decreasing and many cities and states have begun to lift lockdown restrictions. Hugging your friend when you see each other again for the first time in months? Shaking hands with the boss on the first day of returning to the office? There are those who, after being fully vaccinated, are ready to dive into the old pre-Covid social order and those who still hesitate to move into the "new normal" of social distancing when the pandemic has not yet been completely eradicated but the vaccine offers one protection shield. And here is the answer in the three bright colors that reproduce those of traffic lights, sending a clear message:the "red" on the wrist invites you to keep your distance, the "green" proclaims that kisses and hugs are welcome. While yellow suggests discomfort and encouragement to curb the effusions, limiting itself to expressing the joy of seeing each other again perhaps with an elbow blow or a kiss from a distance.
Coded messages of a difficult transition, the colorful plastic wristbands, sold on Amazon for ten dollars for a bag of three, in recent weeks are bought by office managers who are cautiously reopening to employees or by organizers of congresses and other large events , for example a wedding. The bracelets system was tested at a recent convention of the American Association of Airport Executives in Savannah Georgia: the organizers had ordered them in equal quantities for each color, but among the 325 participants, many masked, they sold out. especially the green. But the new traffic light system has in turn created other sources of embarrassment: what happens, for example, when the "greens" also psychologically overwhelm the "reds", he asked himself the "Wall Street Journal ", reporting the new trend. The ambivalence of the" yellows "can create uncertainty. Then there are the classic chameleons who cannot identify with any color and are ready to wear them all, behaving according to what they do. interlocutor, not to mention those who do not agree to be imposed any rules and also embrace those who do not want to be touched.