How important is touch – both in times of pandemic and beyond?
When was the last time you touched someone you don’t live with? One day last March, probably; you’re not sure of the date. Did you shake hands with a new colleague at work? Did your coat brush against another commuter’s on the train? Did someone bump your elbow and mutter an apology when rushing past you on an escalator? If you’d known that was the last time you’d make contact with the body of a stranger, you’d have paid more attention
And what about the 8.2 million British adults who live on their own? Many will have gone nearly a year now without so much as a pat on the arm from another person. Touch is the sense we take most for granted, but we miss it when it’s gone. Psychologists have a term for the feelings of deprivation and abandonment we experience: “skin hunger”.
These are the opening paragraphs of a recent fascinating article in the “Guardian” newspaper. The article really spoke to me as someone who is very tactile (perhaps because my mother was Italian) and as someone who lives alone (so the pandemic has been tough in dramatically reducing opportunities for touch).