Before
we get to the RPF, I just want to take the time to thank all of the veteran’s
out there for your service to the great nation of the United States of America.
No matter where or when your service was, I know that the sacrifices that were
made were great and I appreciate what you have done for us. And on to the RPF…
Welcome
to another Random Post Friday, I hope that your week went well and the waiting
for this week’s RPF did not stress you out too much. I want to take the time to
apologize to Jobro because sadly this week’s RPF is not going to be an account
of who would play me in a movie made about my life, what that movie would be
named, and other details about said movie. While I am sure that would be a very
interesting post and would lead to much discussion I just did not have the time
this week to truly put in all of the thought and effort such a brilliant topic
requires, so right now it is on the backburner and maybe it will appear in a
RPF to come.
Anyways,
this week’s topic is about tickling. Can you not be ticklish? I think that you
can not be ticklish and my evidence is that I myself am not ticklish, however
at one time, I was ticklish and I want to share with you the story of how I
became unticklish. It all started back when I was in what I remember to be
middle school Merl (only half of Merl, the Me part), Pat, Jobro, Lydia, and Me
were sitting in the study watching some tv when all of the sudden Lydia has the
great idea to yell out tickle attack. We soon learned that a tickle attack was
when one of the unfortunate people in the room was held down on the ground by
the others and tickled until the others felt it was sufficient. It was great
fun when you were not the one being tickled however when you were the one being
tickled it was not as much fun, even though you were laughing, a lot. The first
few times that I was a victim of a tickle attack I tried my best not to laugh
but it just never worked, however I have always believed in the power of the
brain and with time I was able to calm myself down during these attacks and
simply breath and what do you know, I became unticklish. The thought that
really helped me out was that tickling is really no different from scratching
yourself and there is no way that you can tickle yourself (go ahead try it…) so
this must mean then that tickling is all mental and something that we learn
from a young age. (Quick note: I am sure that my logic is wrong here as it
usually is but it makes sense to me so I am leaving it).
So
if being tickled is a learned response as my new theory states, why then do
babies automatically laugh when they are tickled? I was tickling my host sister
Maria Belen today and she was just laughing up a storm when I would tickle her.
I do not think that anyone has ever told her that when someone tickles you, you
should laugh. That therefore points to being ticklish being some sort of weird
instinct that we are born with and that some of us outgrow. All of this means
that I cannot make my mind up about being ticklish and whether it is a learned
behavior or an instinct that we are born with. Now you might be asking yourself
right now why all this matters and the answer is that it does not matter in the
least, just another random thought that I had and thought I would share with
the world. Not one of my better RPF’s but two for three isn’t bad maybe I should
try baseball… or maybe I should have gone with the movie idea.
First of all, the movie question had better be next week's RPF.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, from what I understand, tickling is a response to light touch on the skin. The body interprets this as something crawling on the skin (bugs perhaps) and alerts you to the sensation. I can't explain why it feels the way that it feels, but you sense it to become aware that something is on your skin. This is the reason that you can not tickle yourself. You know that you are touching yourself, so your body wouldn't be worried that the touching was due to something crawling on your skin and thus won't alert you to it.
I would think that this is also the reason that you became unticklish. You realized that the sensation was from someone tickling you and learned to ignore the sensation and interpret it as normal.
As to why babies laugh when they are tickled, I think you are on the right track. Their receptors pick up the sensation and they like the way it feels (most likely because it is a novel feeling to them) and they laugh. While this probably isn't true with every baby, I would say that it's a somewhat inherent behavior in babies.
-JoBro