Proxemics entails studying how humans utilize and perceive the physical spaces around them. When people communicate non-verbally, they pass information through means. This involves many behaviors such as proxemics, that is, personal space and the social distance between people in a communication event. Humans establish a territory in personal areas that they claim to be their own. For instance, when someone invades another’s territory, the person will react negatively, when the personal space is respected, an appreciation follows. This is known as territoriality in communication.
People communicate differently according to social situations. Hereby, each social situation requires a different amount of personal space. Edward Hall identified four distances in communication: intimate, personal, social, and public distances. The intimate distance is 0ne to eighteen inches and is a reserve for lovers, close friends, children, and very close family members. The communication may be done through body contact or whispering. The next space is personal distance, which is 1.5- 4 feet. This space is a reserve for close friends, family, colleagues, and other associates. The communication here is done by chatting or discussions.
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The social distance is for newly-known people, strangers, and acquaintances. The distance here is between 4to 12 feet. Here, general talks are common. The furthest distance is the public distance (12-5 feet or more). This is a reserve for public speaking, such as lecturing, speeches, and communication involving a big audience.
According to O’Hara et al., 2020, the cross-device interactions help people to share information. The type of interaction is determined by personal space and the distance between people and devices. The interaction is constrained by the detection of proximity between humans or humans and devices. The study suggests that proxemics that goes beyond the issue of proximity should be used in designing the interactions to increase flexibility. Thus, although proxemics plays an important role in communication, sometimes it may be a hindrance to a communicative event.
References
Edward T. (1966). Proxemic Theory, CISS Classics
Grønbæk, J. E., Knudsen, M. S., O'Hara, K., Krogh, P. G., Vermeulen, J., & Petersen, M. G. (2020, April). Proxemics Beyond Proximity: Designing for Flexible Social Interaction Through Cross-Device Interaction. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-14).
