History resolutely demonstrates that epidemic situations, in contrast to other types of disasters, do not unite, but divide people. It is natural that when seeing masks instead of faces, a person’s instinctive reaction is to see them as a generalized representative of the species Homo. These new circumstances, which have been ongoing for quite a considerable amount of time already, strengthen the replacement of morally binding interpersonal relationships with legally defined indifferent relationships; a tendency that has existed since the beginning of the XX century. In a situation where “masked personalities,” who have no facial expression due to wearing individual protective units and cannot smile to show their potential goodwill, non-verbal communication becomes a mechanical ritual. Accordingly, traditional interpersonal communication loses its habitual human features. This happens in addition to communication being mediated by smartphones and other devices. The transition of the education system to a predominantly distance (online) learning with all its benefits (possibility to involve more students and demonstrate best lecturers) is excluding personal communication. This leads to a decrease in the quality of education and a surge of imitation activities. The emergence of advanced computer technologies of social control is now justified in a number of countries by the need to track the movements of infectious patients. At the same time these technologies can be effectively used for constructing a society where traditional interpersonal relationships may be replaced by new depersonalised and dehumanised ones, facilitating possibility formanagement of society using computer technologies. Accordingly all these things lead to a situation where human personalities are gradually transforming into generalized human beings which can be easily replaced by each other.

Keywords: Generalized Homo, Dehumanized communication, Distance education, Growth of control