In the movie Bubble Boy, it's main character is forced to maintain a physical personal space block between himself and all other characters in his world. He literally has a physical bubble that determines his own personal space; this works much like the invisible 'bubble' that people have. On page 113 of Jandt's book she talks about this bubble as our personal space. Essentially its the comfortable distance between you and another person. It can indicate where a person is from, how close a person is with another person, and generally communicate things that would otherwise go unsaid. For example, in America it may be normal to stand at a 2-4 foot range with someone while in simple conversation, where-as in Eastern cultures, like in Japan or China, it may be comfortable for them to stand within a foot or less of personal space. Or when talking about relationships, couples or close friends generally lower that two to four foot range and can be very close in public.
Personally I find myself very comfortable at any distance when talking with a person. I can stand close or far and not feel that urge to move away, or just simply feeling uncomfortable. Unless someone is 3 to 4 inches away from my face odds are I won't have a problem with standing near them. I also like to mess around and stand in the middle of elevators just to see how people stand around me. I read in my Comm studies that people have a natural inclination to stand at the edges of an elevator, so I like standing in the middle just to see if it throws off anyone. Typically they just stand at the walls anyways! Sadly, that is the extent of my communication social experiments.
Distance between a person can also seem a bit stand-offish too depending on what culture ur from. When i'm back in Louisiana my grandfather usually stands about 2 inches from my face' which makes me very uncomfortable! Still, if I try to back up even slightly he will ask what's the problem or if his breath smells like pork and beans, -_-... he'll also get irritated as if i'm disrespecting him on purpose. Over time I had to learn that that's the french influence from his creole roots. After I took french for a few years I learned that people there are usually very close talkers. I'm a private person myself, but depending on the situation or circumstance, I can easily adjust my comfortablility level to match that of someone i'm speaking with now.
ReplyDelete