Saturday, January 22, 2005
Why Do People Gesture While Talking on the Phone?
This is such a cool question. If you don´t know the answer, you can do a search on the web for the answer, there is at least one psych professor that specializes in communication that has looked into this.
It took me a few reflections to reach my answer, which I will not post, so that you can think about it on your own. But ever since I first saw this question, I have never looked at people talking on the phone the same, specially cell phones.
As I was driving today in town, all of a sudden a big, hefty guy on the sidewalk grabbed my attention. He was having a major argument with someone, intermittently shouting things in an exasperated way on his cell phone as he bent backwards and lifted his free arm into the air, only to follow by hunching forward and vociferating something else. But what was really interesting is how he used his other free arm to the do the most animated gestures ever. "I´m telling you!" he bellowed, as he briskly shaked his pointed finger right into an invisible face. "You have no idea who that is!" he exclaimed as he thrust his free hand forward several times. Then he struck a pose with an expression on his face that said, "Reason with me, will you?" And he stayed frozen in the pose for a minute, until he quickly switched hands holding the phone, thrust his free open hand sideways as he bent forward and shouted something else. All of it, of course, in complete oblivion to all the dozens of passer-byers.
Even a comedy movie couldn´t have done it better.
It took me a few reflections to reach my answer, which I will not post, so that you can think about it on your own. But ever since I first saw this question, I have never looked at people talking on the phone the same, specially cell phones.
As I was driving today in town, all of a sudden a big, hefty guy on the sidewalk grabbed my attention. He was having a major argument with someone, intermittently shouting things in an exasperated way on his cell phone as he bent backwards and lifted his free arm into the air, only to follow by hunching forward and vociferating something else. But what was really interesting is how he used his other free arm to the do the most animated gestures ever. "I´m telling you!" he bellowed, as he briskly shaked his pointed finger right into an invisible face. "You have no idea who that is!" he exclaimed as he thrust his free hand forward several times. Then he struck a pose with an expression on his face that said, "Reason with me, will you?" And he stayed frozen in the pose for a minute, until he quickly switched hands holding the phone, thrust his free open hand sideways as he bent forward and shouted something else. All of it, of course, in complete oblivion to all the dozens of passer-byers.
Even a comedy movie couldn´t have done it better.
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