I’ve heard both terms be used before, but isn’t it just putting on a fake face in order to deal with people? I might be wrong, but that’s what i’ve understood about it
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Masking is being nice to the waiter that screwed up your dinner or polite to the coworker who keeps screwing things up.
Code switching is taking half an hour after work to decompress and unload your brain, then going out to play DnD all evening in an entirely different mindset.
If you’re in the middle of a dungeon and the boss calls asking about some clients tax return it’ll take you a while to switch gears and remember where the filing cabinet is…
Generally in the context, if we say two people are doing effectively the same thing, but one would be masking and the other is code switching. Masking is a form of camoflaging who you really are, generally in a mental health context, in order to conform to the realities of the situation, and is usually “required” to exist in that situation. By comparison code switching would be more like adapting the way your underlying self is to the situation, such as being more professional at work, or your accent/dialect switching when talking to different people/groups.
The line is blurry because ultimately they tend to be similar, but usually you would mask and code switch, but not code switch and mask (if you get what I mean). Someone who commonly masks would probably also code switch to their environment, because they’re already portraying a different persona for the situation they’re in, but someone who just code switches wouldn’t necessarily be masking.
Masking is a changing your personality to fit a situation where you don’t believe your natural personality would be accepted.
Code switching is changing the way you act to match a given situation.
Masking is a distinct subset of code switching.
I have a group of close friends I play sports with – when I’m with them, I talk mostly about sports things, and in ways that fit in with the kind of relationship and shared experiences we have.
I also have a group of friends I D&D with. When we hang out, I talk mostly about game stuff, and in ways that again fit in with our relationship and shared experiences.
These are both genuine natural aspects of my personality, jumping between them is code switching, but neither is masking.
When I’m spending time with coworkers, we talk about work things in a manner appropriate for the work environment I have.
This personality does not feel like my true self, and exists just so my employment goes smoothing. Putting on this persona is masking (and also code switching)
I don’t ask my D&D friends if they saw last night’s hockey game, but that’s because I know the answer, not because I’m uncomfortable showing my sports side to them.
I don’t tell my coworkers about last night’s D&D game, but that’s because I want to keep their opinion of me focused on work stuff and not colored by what I do outside of work.
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