Reach Out and Touch Someone
Doug W. · 5/3/98 at 8:00 PM ET
There's more than a little evidence to suggest that human beings need to touch. The more intimate the relationship, the more touching. So this all becomes a matter of what 'level' of sociability are we talking about.Considering what occurs in more formal social settings- We shake hands and then I think most of us go about determining whether we 'like' the other person- lot's of stereotyping gets furiously processed as we're deciding. On the one hand there is something terrifically egalitarian about the internet. Is the essence of liking someone how they look, the facial expressions they make (of course I'm leaving out 1200 other cues) or is it what a person actually SAYS that in the long run is the deciding factor as to whether we continue the relationship? If in social relationships, 'words' win out, then there is good reason to think of the internet as a social domain. Words make real contact from one brain to another. I have this image of two brains perched on a table top- no bodies- just brains talking to each other. Feelings can be generated but only in as so much the brains can create the sense of feelings. (I guess telepathy would be needed to type the keys!). This is appealing in a social sense only as far as it goes, because this body (mine that is) also likes to walk, run, jump and have social relationships develop around activities too. Hmmm-forgive the rambling.
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