Personal Space

Personal space varies between every person, every country, every culture, every belief, and every religion. When I observed what personal space may mean to other students at Barrington High School, I noticed a difference when it came to gender and the opposite sex. When girls talked to their girlfriends, guys talked to their guy friends, couples talking to one another, and guys talking with their girl friend/girls talking with their boy friends, you'd notice a complete difference when it came to personal space for each group. Though not all couples are like this, but I observed this one that would be looking at each other around two inches apart, and were all smiley and kissing each other. There was literally not enough space for them to even look each other in the eyes when they would talk. I noticed whenever girls would talk to their girlfriends, they would sit close enough to each other so nobody else can hear what their talking about. I feel most girls do that so they can talk about their problems, talk about what this person did, talk about how hot this guy is or what her boyfriend got her, etc. Observing the way guys would interact with each other was the most interesting and entertaining because there was no such thing as personal space. The guys would get really close to each other and act like they were a couple, they would throw things at each other, make sexual references about anything anyone said, and would do whatever they could to make each other feel uncomfortable. I wonder if guys do things like that on purpose to make the girls laugh or because they want to get our attention or thats just what they do. Walking around you see a lot of friendships between someone with the opposite sex. I noticed that the conversations that would take place was roughly at a distance of seven to ten inches which is a good distance because your able to look each other in the eyes when you talk, see their reaction to something you said, and have a genuine conversation.

As I was observing what personal space may mean to other people I noticed about myself that personal space isn't much of an issue for me. Though I do like having my space when someone makes me uncomfortable, all in all I'm a friendly person and am totally fine with having conversations with someone five inches away or even thirty inches away. The more closer I am to someone I'm having a conversation with, the more I feel like we both understand each other than we would if we had a conversation further away because it's not easy to lie to someone when your face to face, you feel more sympathy for that person, you hear what they have to say and not what other people are saying, and so on. I defiantly feel more comfortable talking closer to a girl than I would a guy just because I'm a girl, and girls have lots to talk vs. having a close conversation with a guy which can lead up to them taking it the wrong way and trying to do something that puts you in an awkward situation.