On the opening day of the Legislature, I spotted a young man gesturing to someone on the opposite side of the third-floor balcony. He had both thumbs up and wiggling in the air. It took me a moment to figure out what that was about.
It was the sign for “Text me.”
Oh.
By now it is no longer surprising that the younger generation doesn’t use the old hand gesture for “call me.” They might guess correctly what holding your hand up with your thumb by your ear and pinkie by your mouth means, but the older accompanying movement that pantomimes a rotary dial just looks like an out-of-position gesture for “crazy.”
The “call me” gesture is just the most obvious of the many changes in common nonverbal communication, particularly in the gestures we use to make a request. “Eh, try come” might never change, but so many other things have.
Kids today don’t know the gesture for manually cranking down the car window. Try it and see. They won’t even have good guesses like turning a jump rope or waxing a car.
Anything that involves the action of turning a dial, like “crank up the music” or “Too loud, would you turn it down?” is pretty useless in a world with few dials.
The finger click motion to indicate taking a photo is very quaint, as is one eye closed, one arm making circles to indicate a film camera. Thank goodness for charades or that one would be lost.
But here’s a shocker: There are kids who don’t know the gesture for “turn on the water faucet so I can water the plants.” They live in apartments and never get near a backyard water hose. They move through a world where faucets are no-touch with sensors like at the airport or in the restrooms at Nordstrom. They probably don’t even remember a time when paper towels had to be manually cranked out of bathroom dispensers or when soap was a grimy bar of Ivory sitting in a wire soap dish. Show them an outside water faucet and they would not know how to operate it. Demonstrate with a gesture and they only get more confused.
Other pantomimes for common actions are still viable but clearly losing ground.
How do you gesture, “Bring me the keys” from across the parking lot when so many cars don’t have actual keys that go into an ignition anymore? That closed-hand wrist-twist meant to signal a key turning a lock is becoming an old-fashioned thing, like great-grandma’s two-handed washboard gesture for “do laundry.”
How much longer will the “air signature” work for “waiter, please bring the check” when payment is electronic and ballpoint pens aren’t a part of settling up the dinner bill?
Many kids tell time with cellphones rather than watches. Tap your wrist for “hurry up, time’s ticking” and they might look at you like you’re from a different world.
(You are.)
Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.
