Are We Losing Touch?

On our minds

Touch is our first sense to develop. We are able to use it in-utero, whereas vision — which we often think of as our primary sense — may not be fully functional until a full year after birth. Touch makes us happy, stimulating the release of neurotransmitters: dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin. It's so critical to our wellbeing that an infant deprived of physical touch may not survive. (The official diagnosis is " failure to thrive.") During the isolation of the pandemic, people reported strong mental health consequences related to the loss of social touch.

Tactile experiences are also fundamental to human learning. The people of Nordic countries understand this well, which is why they often top worldwide lists for the  best early childhood education. Denmark gave us forest schools, while Swedish preschoolers may spend up to six hours a day on unstructured outdoor play, even in frigid temperatures.

But in our aggressively virtual world, we are literally losing touch. We solve puzzles with a fingertip on a pad, rather than with our entire hands. Everything from connecting to camping happens via screens.

At PLASTARC, we obviously appreciate tech. We love computer modeling and how optimized it is for applications from physics to data collection. However, we also believe in optimizing for human efficiency and creativity; human brains are nourished by a rich array of sensual information, not simply sights and sounds. (After all, skin is the largest organ in our body!)

Case in point: in the 1830s, a German educator named Friedrich Froebel conceptualized kindergarten and designed a set of wooden blocks to teach young students math and design. Froebel's Blocks were a favorite childhood toy of legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright and influenced his approach to modern design. Imagine a world without either one of these inventors!

LEGO Education, the arm of the LEGO Group that translates play into pedagogy, uses a metric they call " solution diversity." If multiple groups of children are given the same set of LEGOs and come up with a very similar design, LEGO sends that set back to the proverbial (or hopefully, actual!) drawing board. That's because toys that foster creativity and learning—truly productive play—are open-ended enough that everyone interprets (plays with) them in a unique way.

Recently, we discussed how overwhelming and invasive constant digital input can feel. Our brains haven't evolved as quickly as our tech. That's why research coming from the University of Toronto, showing that fewer toys leads to richer play experiences, makes so much sense. Even so, the "ideal" number of toys researchers settled on may raise a few eyebrows: toddlers seemed to reach peak curiosity and engagement in a room with just four toys.

Working in-office has become a day-long video conference, and it's deeper than a perceived lack of "authentic" connection. Without tactility, we undercut one of the key features of collaboration: sharing a physical and spatial understanding of the topic at hand.

Being constantly on a computer is problematic, full stop. Team meetings shouldn't just be about brainstorming with our voices; we should be using our bodies. This may look like physical modeling, sticky-note mapping, incorporating breathing exercises or other movement, or actually handling products. Mix up meeting locations. Meet in the room with the fidget-friendly tables one day and outdoors the next. (As we've mentioned, our memory operates differently when we vary the location of our work, and when we are more physically active.)

Recently PLASTARC joined presenters and exhibitors from around the world at both ICFF and  NeoCon, events that celebrate multisensory design and the tactility of place. We enjoyed spending time around other folks who understand how much touching things influences brain-processing. "Return to office" isn't just about water cooler chatter. It's about having collaborative, tactile experiences that help us comprehend our team members and the value of the product or service we're offering and that engage us and spark our creativity. If we want the physical office to be more meaningful than the virtual office, we all need to lean in—or across the table—and incorporate tactile experiences at work.

From the archives

In the spirit of celebrating feel good office experiences and nostalgia, a full decade ago, West Elm made a splash at NeoCon by introducing 55 new products that they designed following a collaborative research process with PLASTARC. That same year, we promoted multisensory design at Future of Work and in our newsletter. We were also (always and forever!) obsessed with the humanity (and tactile yearnings!) of those who actually occupy workspaces.