Essay 4
The Many Facades of Touch
Writing, typing, texting, hi-fiving and even being punched in the face have one thing in common. They all involve the same sense. Touch is a very versatile sense that I use “hands on” everyday. “Touch is different from the other four senses for the fact that it is not located in a specific part of the body, but rather it is within the skin which covers your entire body” (The Senses). Touch can be physical in two ways- the way in which a person uses it and the way in which said person receives the sense. Touch can also be more psychological. An act or event can impact ones life so much that it “touches” one to be motivated or it can be a traumatic act that can leave one severally emotionally vulnerable. Something I hope to explain to you, the reader, is my views on touch and how they can affect everyday life.
To begin, I would like to start with the two sides of physical touch and defining what they are in two ways: through research I had found, and my own person view on touch.
“Touch- put body in contact with something: to put a part of the body, especially the fingertips, in contact with something so as to feel it” (“Touch”)
The definition I had used I particularly like because it does describes both parts of physical touching- Acquiring touch and receiving touch. When one acquires, touch they are using there fingertips, feet, lips, or any other sensitive part of the skin to feel an object. Personally I acquire a sense of touch as i type this, having my fingertips glide over the hard plastic keys I’m typing. I also acquire touch when I grab a soda that is next to my computer. I feel the cold metal of the can every time my fingers touch it.
The other view of physical touch is what I view as receiving. Receiving touch is anytime the skin receives information on an object touching it, but one is not expecting touch. An example of this from my personal experiences would be when I’m sitting in class and a pretty girl brushes against my arm. I was not expecting contact but I received a sense of touch by this. In a way when receiving touch it can sometimes be surprising. A startling drop of rain touching your skin, or an unexpected slap on the back from a friend is also good examples of this.
With physical touch understood, it is time to move on to another type of touch; that of emotional and mental touch. The transitive verb definition for touch is this:
“To have effect on somebody or something: to have an effect or influence on somebody or something (touch)”
I really agree with the definition because it is a solid fact that touch is not all physical. What I do not agree with about this definition is that it is very vague when it says “to have an effect or influence on somebody”. It doesn’t state that it could be a positive or negative influence on a person and I know wish to go further into this. In fact it’s actually both. It is difficult to go in depth with the sense of non-tangible touch and not completely stray of the topic of touch. Note that not everyday does one experience a traumatic or life changing event. These are the main reasons for an emotional sense of touch but they aren’t the only ones. Sometime, for example, I will sit in class and a teacher will explain something that sounds so complex but suddenly it will hit me in a way that makes me think differently. I consider this as another way of being touched, as it changes my views on things.
When someone goes through a life changing experience, such as a close family member dying or a near death experience they tend to see the world in a new perspective. This act of seeing things in a new light would be the effects of touch. These negative incidents tend to make the people experiencing them want more out of lives such as closer relationships within there family’s or to do more with there lives in general. For me personally, I have experienced a loss of a close family member. After they had passed away it made me realize that I could have been with them more and had a better relationship with them. This encouraged me to be more social with all of my family members and to keep in touch with my elderly ones even more because I don’t know exactly how much time I may have with them.
On the other hand, positive experiences can result in similar ways as the negative ones do. A positive experience could be hearing a certain song that makes one think in ways they never would before or even welcoming in a new member to the family. These events usually amplify healthy activities in your life. For instance, I love music. I hope to one day be a famous jazz drummer, or even a music professor, but it wasn’t always like that. I had always loved music but one day I had listened to an un-named piece of music and it had touched me in such a way that it moved me to want to touch others the same way or at least influence others in music.
Music especially has been shown to touch people in amazing ways. It has always been a theory that music helps people recover or cope with illnesses or melancholy but hasn’t even began to be proven until recently. One article even shows how even a debilitating disease such as dementia can not erase musical abilities. “Other researchers have found the sound of drums may influence how bodies work. Quoted in a 2001 article in USA Today, Suzanne Hasner, chairwoman of the music therapy department at Berklee College of Music in Boston, says even those with dementia or head injuries retain musical ability. (Music & emotions)” Now with all the general ideas of touch defined and a few examples given of each, I would like to explain how the all the sense of touch fit into a day to day routine. I’ll use an example of my daily routine emphasizing many of my senses of touch, but to name all of them would meaning writing an entire paper all to itself. I’ll show examples of both types of physical touch and some examples of how it situations can effect my mood.
When I first wake up I touch the off button on my alarm and feel the cold plastic. Next i get out of my bed and my feet touch the hard cold ground. I then proceed to brush my teeth grabbing both my toothpaste and toothbrush. After that i grab some clothing and get dressed. I next proceed to getting my book bag, open the door and leave. (Already i have mentioned six times i used the sense of touch omitting many small details.) Next I feel the cold wind on my face and proceed to English class. When I get to class I make sure to get my grade sheet that is covered in plastic. During the class, we discuss the sense of touch. The discussion makes me think outside the box and this is when I really understand what an emotional sense of touch is, which in itself is an example of what this emotion facade of touch is. moving on to my next class I go through many plethora of feelings such as the cold wind on my face, the warmth of the sunshine out in the open, the dry feeling of loose leaf, the cold metal of a fork from the dining hall, a high five from a friend, and eventually leading up to my head feeling the cool, softness of my pillow case and the warmth of my bed sheets.
In retrospect, Touch has many different sides to it. It has a physical side that is used almost at all times, and is also divided into touching and receiving touch. Touch also has an emotional affect to it. It can change a person’s outlook on many things in life rather drastically due to a negative or positive experience. Music plays one of the most common roles in this and is well on its way of being 100% proven as a way to “touch” a person. Both types of touch are also seen in day to day life at all times. I hope this helped to get a better “grip” on the sense of touch.
Works Cited
The Amazing Sense of touch.” The Five Senses- The Sense of Touch. 1Apr 2009 <http://library.thinkquest.org/28457/touch.shtml>.“
“How Does Music Impact Our Emotions?” Music & emotions 15 Mar 2009 http://chordpiano.com/articles-chord-piano/music-emotions-4.htm.
“Touch .” Encarta Word English dictionary . 2009. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. 15 Mar 2009 <http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861721074/touch.html>.
Revision Statement
When I first began to revise my paper I wanted to make a better introduction. So I added a bit of a random eccentric opening statement to catch the reader off guard. Over all I was given good advice on where to go with my paper. Looking at my peer editor’s rubric my lowest points were in formatting, hooking the reader, and grammar. After revising my opening sentence I went and used my handy dandy spell check to clean up fragments and misspellings I then proceeded to make sure my paper fell within the MLA guide lines noticing that last time I wrote my paper I did a horrible job formatting everything. I added another source into my paper after that and cleaned up my worked cited page. Over all I did a lot of basic simple corrections which I believe cleaned my paper up a ton and should appeal to my editor more than the previous one.
