In the US and much of Europe. In other countries they absolutely were the norm. I'm not advocating for permanent mask wearing, but I absolutely DO think we should have shown more concern for others prior to Covid. It drove me nuts how many people would show up to work with "just a mild flu" or "just a cold" with no concern for the likelihood they might pass it on to others.
Only ever for people who actually felt sick. Not for all people by default regardless of how they felt. If I'm wrong please correct me, I'd love to know of this land where wearing surgical masks was the default expectation of everybody all the time.
I'm from the US and have spent limited time in other countries, so I can only really judge based on what I've read, but it was my understanding that masks where common in a number of countries pre-pandemic, mostly the denser areas of Asia. Certainly I had seen plenty of pictures of crowded subways and walkways with far more people wearing masks than one would expect if only the sick were wearing them, and the above article, written in 2016 seems to confirm that impression.
It's worth noting that if your only wearing a mask because you feel sick and have decided to go out anyway.... Well your doing it wrong. Everyone understands that a surgical mask is not a highly effective barrier against the spread of a virus, be it cold, flu, or Covid. What it DOES do is help keep those little moisture molecules to yourself such that if your unknowingly packing one of these viruses you somewhat reduce the chances of spreading it. Even a small percentage reduction in spread when amplified across a large population can have a huge effect on the total number of cases.
When your symptomatic, and thus most likely to be contagious, just stay the heck home.
Only because we live in a “me” society and not a “we” society. If we were sensible, masking up would be normal when one has a cold/there’s a local flu outbreak. So much illness and lost productivity would be easily avoided with a minor change in expectations and behaviour.