How important is the sense of touch in our everyday communication?
★★A day in the life of a Baby developer★★
As technology advances, we are adopting more and more casual forms of communication as a norm: email instead of snail mail, messaging app instead of email, and emoji instead of text. When something is “casual,” there is usually less emotional distance between the two parties involved.
This week, we as a team, had some musings on what is the ultimate form of “casual” communication, and we came to conclude that it has to be zero distance communication: communication through the sense of touch.
I think many can relate to this, but if a girl (or a boy, whichever suits you in this situation) tells you she likes you after several dates, yet she does not let you touch her, then she does not mean what she says. “Touching” definitely makes two people closer, and it is a telltale of mutual affections. Words can deceive us. Touch, or lack thereof, on the other hand, can divulge our true emotions.
So I decided to count how many times, in a somewhat typical day, I used my “touch” to convey my true emotions. True by that I mean I expressed the opposite or something else than what my words represented at that time. Here I go:
8 AM: As I woke up, I touched my hubby’s cheek to wake him up. It is a chilly morning, and he hates my cold hands touching his cheek. It is a garbage day where I live, so my touch was supposed to say “take out the trash for me, please. It’s been sitting there for 2 weeks.” +1
12 AM: A teleconference with my coworkers. After then, my husband was complaining how I was aloof when he was telling me something at the breakfast table, so I gently grabbed his hands and said “of course I was listening to you. I am sorry if I gave that impression.” when in fact, I’m not sure what he was referring to at all….+1
2 PM: I had a family lunch this week. There was an uncle who grabbed my shoulders and held me tight for a while. I laughed out loud and smiled while I managed to find my way out of his grip. Of course he is my family and I love him. It’s just that…he sometimes um, spits a lot.+1
3 PM: Also at the family lunch, my nephew spat out his “favorite” rice pudding that I brought. He said delicious, but don’t you think you can deceive your auntie, young man.+1
5 PM: Went to a hair cut. It was a definitely one of those moments where I wished the time to be rewound back. I met up with my husband, and he said nothing while gently stroking my head. Trasnltion: it’s OK, hair grows back anyway.+1
9 PM: Me and my husband had a little fight over who gets to use the bathroom first when we got back our home. He used it first. After a quarrel, we hugged and I pretended to have made up, but I was still mad at him for making me wait when I I had to go to the bathroom really badly. This makes me sound like a horrible person, but I do cover my true feelings like this throughout the day. Huh, kinda sucks to realize that!+1
…..I could go on and on a bit more and embarrass myself and my family a bit more, but I think I made my point clear: touch is honest and powerful communication tool that cannot lie. When you say something yet you do not actually mean it, your touch, or the sense of touch will speak out for you.
With this powerful realization, we want to apply this insight to our Baby robot development — how powerful would it be if we can enable zero distance communication via Baby robot? Would that bring communication to a whole new level? What is the “zero distance communication,” anyways? Do we need touch to convey our true feelings? Could we do away with other forms of communication if touch was so powerful?
Our mission is to actualize the worldwide sympathy-sharing network and challenge the ways in which people define “communication.” In this society we live in, we tend to place the highest value on coherent, well-though-out written or verbal communications. Yet, are they really the only way to achieve the best and highest quality communication? We are yet to find the answers, at least for now.
Stay tuned for our next post:)
XOXO,
Yuki
