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Sunday, March 25, 2012

Nervousness in Chronemics and Proxemics

How do you react when you meet someone new for the first time? Do you talk really quickly and nervously in an attempt to not be awkward, or do you clamp your mouth shut and blush brightly whenever you are addressed? When I meet someone new for the first time, I have the habit of being rather quiet and withdrawn rather than bubbly and outgoing. However, once I am well acquainted with a person, I open up more and talk more often than before. Some people are perfectly comfortable with meeting new people and speaking with strangers while others are absolutely terrified of meeting new people. This will address the different ways that people interact with strangers, in conjunction with Proxemics and Chronemics. When a person is nervous about meeting someone new, they often will stand further away from the person than they would with someone that they know well. For example, if a nervous person is introduced to someone new, they may lean away from the person and keep their hands stuffed in their pockets, or fidget. One the other hand, if that same person knows someone well, then they may lean towards the person or even lean against them and hold themselves in a more relaxed position. Somebody who does not easily get nervous meeting new people may still keep some distance between themselves and someone new but not as much as the nervous person would. chronemics works in much the same way as Proxemics, which I just covered, except this is heard rather than seen. A nervous perons meeting somebody new may speak very quickly or not at all, whereas a non-nervous person would probably keep an average pace in their speech rather than varying it one way or another. So there is a large difference between the nervous and non-nervous person, and not much is different in how the Chronemics and Proxemics are used by each person.