I worry that hugging people could come across as creepy. So, from now on, all you’re getting is a handshake

I worry that hugging people could come across as creepy. So, from now on, all you’re getting is a handshakeThis seems a better way to say hello than giving a little bow or a wave – but maybe I’m overthinking the whole processgave up hugging people just before Christmas; I thought it was for the best. I’m in my mid-50s, possibly a bit smelly and live in fear of coming over as a bit creepy.

Initially, I wasn’t sure with what to replace the hug. I sought advice from my daughter, asking how she introduced herself to people in a work environment. “You hardly meet people face to face,” she said, sadly. “It’s usually online.” No useful guidance there then, other than a hard agree that my hugging days are behind me. But the alternatives I trialled didn’t feel right. I found myself executing a kind of courtly little bow, which felt absurd.

I don’t know whether generation Z are in the habit of shaking hands with each other but intergenerationally, with the likes of me, it’s definitely the way forward. Conveying warmth – which was the aim of all the hugging in the first place – is about more than any physical act, which can itself be a substitute for genuine warmth rather than an expression of it. This we found out during the enforced physical distancing of the Covid years when handshakes, let alone hugging, were but fond memories.

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