Friday, November 17, 2006
Proxemics
Proxemics is the study personal space and people’s perception of it. I only learned this yesterday. This is a subject near and dear to my heart as I have HUGE personal space issues (i.e. Don’t Touch Me!)
A lengthy article in yesterday’s NYT was a bit of a relief to read because it showed that I am in the majority (at least in North America) and my behaviour is typical of our society (i.e. Don’t Touch Me!)
“According to scientists, personal space involves not only the invisible bubble around the body, but all the senses. People may feel their space is being violated when they experience an unwelcome sound, scent or stare: the woman on the bus squawking into her cellphone, the co-worker in the adjacent cubicle dabbing on cologne, or the man in the sandwich shop leering at you over his panini.”
It’s all our senses! Yikes! There’s no escape from Other People.
There’s a “close talker” here at work. She stands so near me I’m afraid she’s going to bite my face. She definitely violates “intimate distance”. She does it to everyone.
Here are the zones:
intimate distance (6 to 18 inches);
personal distance (18 inches to 4 feet);
social distance (4 to 12 feet); and
public distance (about 12 feet or more).
If I don’t know you, do not come closer than social distance! Scat! Scat! Get away!
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10 comments:
Public distance equals 12 feet or more??? That translates into approximately 2 or 3 people per Metro car (how relaxing having that extra seat to put my feet up after a hard day's work)...unless of course some cutie comes on (in which case he can be up to four feet away -- still plenty of room to put my feet up)...or if Alec Baldwin happens to saunter in (a nice cozy 6 inches --- which I hear is average!)
Note to self: Stop fantasizing on work time!
JAW fan
What's with this Alec Baldwin obsession of late?
What do you think of the new Metro cars? The ones with hardly any seats. I hate them. They might as well take out all the seats and let us stand there like cattle. Moo.
The population is aging and here they are introducing buses and Metros with fewer places to sit. Brilliant.
I'm sensing alec b is going to crush in on this post's personal space
not a bad thing, tho'...
re: new Metro cars. I like to lean up and half-sit on that bar across the side (where seats used to be!)No one seems to bother me there, because the bar is at a rather ridiculous level to hold onto, so everyone gathers around those three-prong middle things.
Re: Alec...he justs keeps popping up everywhere. This past weekend I happen to turn on SNL (and there he is hosting) Sadly, his shirt never came off.
JAW fan.
I'm along on the personal space thing. I especially do not like it when strangers touch me. In any form. My sister's kids know how to torture me. They follow me around saying "someone needs a hug!" It's guaranteed to make me run in the other direction. Sadly my best friend? Is a hugger. I put up with it from her. My rule is no hugging unless I've known you for more than 10 years. That covers good friends, family, and Able Assistant. Everyone else needs to stay back.
Oh and I once had a guy call me "evil" because I didn't hug him. I barely knew the man. I told him that if I was evil, he needed to get out more.
Ah! So YOU are the face of evil? Now I know.
One man's "chilly" is another's man "evil"?
wait a minute ms nanuk and JAW fan: you people are mtlers! aren't you supposed to kiss each other on the cheek 3 times each and every time you meet?
and w/those crowded metros, y'all should be a-kissin' and a-huggin' non-stop
It's just two kisses. And I have known JAW for how long now? 15 years? And we have never as far as I can recall ever done the cheek-cheek kissy Montrealer thing.
In fact, I don't think I do that with anybody, except my relatives of course. (Relatives on the French side, that is. Not on the Ontario Ango side.)
you're lucky I don't get on plane, and travel all that way just to give you a hug (oh and the mtl 2-kiss)
You aren't a stranger so I might let you get await with it. Maybe.
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