Importance Of Touch In Everyday Life

Touch has played such a huge part in my everyday life and I wouldn't be who I am today without the guidance and interactions my sense of touch has given me. Touch influences not only the things I like, the clothes I wear and the people I'm attracted too but it has also taught me how to establish trust and social bonds. The way I engage in touch with my family, friends and acquaintances vary in many ways, as it does for most people. After reading all about touch in the book Nonverbal Communication in Everyday Life written by Martin S. Remland, I've learned a lot about my own sense of touch in a more fundamental structure as well as how it works with others. The terms and ideas presented in the section of touch were relatable to my life in many different ways with all sorts of people I'm encountered with.

Communication researchers Stanley Jones and Elaine Yarbrough explain in this reading that there are also various meanings behind all different forms of touch. Touch can be controlling, meant to guide a person in a certain direction or physically place someone elsewhere. Touch can be used to create a positive affect by signaling your liking of another person. It can be ritualistic, something we do out of habit, like how when we enter an interview we will automatically shake the interviewer's

I use task-oriented touch when I'm at work and need to assist a client in washing her hair. Any other time of the day I wouldn't be touching her hair or in the bathroom with them. This shows me how I use some forms of touch to simply complete tasks. I was raised to use ritualistic touches when I meet someone new by shaking their hand and introducing myself. I used control touch just the other day when a seen a girl I recognized walking past me and I grabbed her arm to get her attention. I also engage in playful touches when I go home and visit on weekends by tickling my year-old