'I think that shaking hands is, and in fact the human touch, is very important to our socialization,' says Kyle Woods, 56, who lives in Atlanta. But some germaphobes and other people were never fans of the custom in the first place out of concern over contracting the flu or other viruses. Now that the world is reopening, some people view shaking hands as part of a return to normalcy. Today it's common practice to politely introduce yourself to someone with a handshake. Another explanation is that the handshake was a symbol of good faith when making a promise. One popular theory, according to History, is that extending an empty hand showed someone you came in peace and were not holding a weapon. In his epic poem ' The Odyssey,' written in about 800 B.C., Homer makes references to people clasping hands upon greeting each other. It's not clear how exactly the practice of shaking hands began, but it has been around for thousands of years.

Why do we shake hands in the first place? But we've learned a lot about the virus since the world first went into lockdown, so maybe it's time to revisit the question. Like many questions that have come up over the past 15 confusing months, there is no explicitly right or wrong answer. Newsletter sign-up: Get The COVID-19 Brief sent to your inbox.So now that the pandemic is in retreat in some parts of the world, is it time to give the handshake another shot? But that was back when most people knew little about the novel coronavirus and no vaccine was in sight. But for people still anxious about socializing after more than a year in isolation, the rituals around greeting someone can be nerve-wracking.Дo you go in for a handshake? A fist bump? An awkward little wave?ДЄ year ago, health experts seemed to declare the handshake dead. No loss to Humanity the disparagement of the 'handshake'.This summer is bringing back a lot of what we used to call ' normal,' including greeting long-lost friends and maskless strangers in the U.S.ДЇor many of us it's long overdue. Who really needs it, and in this time of disease hyper-awareness, Human creativity has demonstrated several other gestures which convey the same message without the slavery of 'custom'. Acculturating to the bow was a small epiphany for this head and is much preferred than to grip a sweaty or a limp or aggressively viseoid or greedy hand in a meaningless ritual that is only practiced by certain cultures for unknown historical reasons. And the 'necessity' of it seems to be mostly in people whose job is manipulating the minds and/or emotions of those they encounter such as politicians, salespeople, 'investment advisors' and such while, if one is paying attention, appears often to be one of the most insincere gestures many Humans can make for which we have no better example than the trump. The 'bow' is a much better acknowledgement of another Human and removes also any temptation to demonstrate one's virility, and the handshake can be a very clumsy gesture at times without even mentioning our ever heightening awareness, even among the educationally impaired, of all that lives around and upon each of us. Eds: Can you change this overblown headline? 'Age-old' is pure hyperbole and 'Human' is obviously wrong and very wrongly suggests 'universal' and should be changed to, maybe, 'cultural'.

Can i watch handshaker first