We need to touch as human beings
We are tactile by nature
Will we evolve out of that in the digital age?
I was watching the documentaries of the Twin Towers coming down - the amount of paper! it was scary and like confetti but meaningless. Out of context, charred, settling in unsettled piles on the pavement.
A hypothesis that I'm working on is that on reason we have not gone paperless in the office is that we still need touch
The touch of paper
The touch of pen nib to paper
The feel of pencils shedding colour on paper
The importance of touch in creating and making
The importance of making for connections
The importance of texture
The touch of keyboard (I'm desensitized after years of this touch)
Touch of fingerpads on clarinet keys (a new touch for me this year)
Touch can regulate emotions
Touch modulates negative emotions (Hertenstein et al, 2006)
I reject this image, the tech has no touch
Until I read about the work of adding a sense of touch to prosthetics
I'm left with the feeling of empathy for those who have lost touch
Ahhh, the cold, hard face of tech,
if only there was more love,
more hands to hold
more flirting and laughter
less bits and bytes.
Surely then, I'd be engaged
more likely to respond
more open to be me
this techy, messy, pixelated
version of me
working in the digital.
Poem for #HumanMOOC 2016
Reference:
Hertenstein, M. J., Verkamp, J. M., Kerestes, A. M. & Holmes, R. M. (2006) Touch in humans. Genetic, Social, and General Psychology Monographs, 132, 10+.(Accessed 2016/12/15/).
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