Look around classrooms, and it’s everywhere: nail biting, knuckle cracking, pencil tapping, lip biting. Everyone has their nervous habits, and they are a body practice that can be found in every room on the university. It is supposed to relieve stress and allow the person to focus on their task at hand, which is most likely an exam. What exactly do these things really do for the individual, though? Does it truly help, or is it just another subconscious activity done without any regard for its purpose?
Take nail biting for example. Looking around, one could probably find many people exhibiting this particular habit. One does this without even thinking about it, in order to relieve some of the stress of the current situation, and to get rid of the nervousness. But in reality, these things do nothing, and the person is left in a pursuit without terminus, in that they are unconsciously searching to feel calmer, though that will not happen until said situation is over. So they just continue to bite their nails or crack their knuckles or perhaps tap their pen (all the while potentially annoying their neighbor at the desk or table nearby) while never reaching their ultimate goal which is to remain calm during that situation.
Nervous habits not only have an effect on the person doing them, but they also send messages to everyone around them that perhaps they are uncomfortable or not confident in what they’re doing. The discomfort of the situation is causing them to do such a thing. The pressure of society to do well on these exams is what causes these things in the first place. People must please society and the stress of this causes the nervous habits. It is once again a cycle for acceptance in order to fully better oneself.
it's interesting to note that these kind of activities, as far as I'm concerned are mostly subconscious. I am almost always unaware that I"m biting my nails when I am, and it's not always a result of nervousness, but also of boredom (at least in my case).
ReplyDeleteIt is something I think that is learned from others, as I learned it from a family member through years of observation, like how the children of smokers are far more likely to smoke than the children of non-smokers; it seems like the natural thing to do so it would only be abnormal to the outsider. In this case the outsider connects these activities with a negative connotation by tagging them with words like "nervous" and "tic" when these things could actual relieve stress and don't always cause physical harm, or very little if any.