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Comment by Dumblydorr | Hacker News Reader

I don't agree that touch is the most important sense. For me, vision and hearing both come out far ahead.

Where would I be without Chopin's music, without the sound of my friends' instruments as we jam, without the loving voices of friends and family?

Where would I be without vision, I couldn't see the works of Monet, Van Gogh, Miyazaki, Blizzard, Bethesda, or practically all code and screens and UI?

Touch feels nice, but as an American man, I was taught to touch only when necessary, lest the other person find it over the line. The OP author is an Italian female, so there's a cultural abd gender difference no doubt. But personally, I don't miss shaking hands or hugging, nevermind cheek kissing.

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I get what you are saying, but it just proves that touch is vilified in the western world.

Touch is extremely important for the development of the newborn, and I'm sure it is for the wellbeing of adults; just because we can do without or with less, doesn't mean we shouldn't have it.

Reducing touch is like a social circumcision, a barbarism disguised as serving a good purpose.

But how sad it is. What a full spectrum of experience of life you are missing then...

It is sad and it robs (mostly) men of those calming and grounding human emotions.

When I had COVID-19, I was taken by an ambulance to the hospital. I was wearing two masks duct taped to my face and the paramedic was wearing one of those white bunny costumes where I could only see his eyes.

He strapped me in, and took my pulse and then placed his hand on my shoulder, which I thought was really unnecessary, because I was strapped pretty good to the bed, then I realized he touched my shoulder to calm me down, not to secure me from falls :)

>Touch feels nice, but as an American man, I was taught to touch only when necessary, lest the other person find it over the line.

What? You must not watch sports then. High fives. Butt slaps. Chest bumps. etc. In fact, we might even say that there's a big problem with men inappropriately touching people, just look at the next potential Leader of the Free World, they both have a reputation for inappropriate touching. If you can be President of the United States while also "Grab 'em [women] by the pussy", I think we're being taught as men that we can easily get away with inappropriate touching.

If your go-to examples of male touch are reserved for brief celebratory gestures and "inappropriate" touching, then it would seem you're not effectively making the point you're attempting to make. Neither of these examples indicate that touching is normal, common, or considered appropriate.

Why did you think they would? Do you often find truth by generalizing from exceptions?

Can you talk more about how professional athletes and the highest level of government are exceptions? Those people are in the spotlight more than most people, except maybe actors...but the film industry seems to have the same message.

I'm not going to explain to you how fame and media attention are exceptional. It should be obvious to anyone who doesn't have their head up their ass.

I guess if you want to claim that the behaviors of heads of state and professionally trained millionaire athletes is indicative of the experiences of your typical American male, you can suffer the credibility loss that such a claim entails.

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