You\u2019re walking through the farmers market with a screaming toddler tucked under your arm football style. You\u2019re tired, you\u2019re leaving without the produce you came for and you\u2019re embarrassed.<\/p>\n
You pass by an older woman on the way out, steeling yourself for judgment.<\/p>\n
Instead, you get a knowing smile and hear, \u201cWe\u2019ve all been there. You\u2019re doing great, Mama.\u201d<\/p>\n
And suddenly, you feel seen.<\/p>\n
These commonplace moments with a stranger can make all the difference in helping someone feel like they belong, but until recently, these sparks of connection<\/strong> didn\u2019t have a name. Now, thanks to a University of Georgia researcher, they do: evanescent interactions<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is communicated by these evanescent interactions is essentially, \u2018You\u2019ve noticed me. You\u2019ve confirmed my existence. You\u2019ve communicated that I am welcome here, that I belong here, that I have a place here, that I have value,\u2019\u201d said Joseph Hermanowicz<\/a>, author of the publication and a professor of sociology in UGA\u2019s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hermanowicz defines evanescent interactions as brief moments when \u201cstrangers exchange gestures that create a \u2018spark\u2019 between them.\u201d<\/p>\n An evanescent interaction is more than just an ordinary exchange of pleasantries.<\/p>\n These moments consist of brief but meaningful exchanges of mutual understanding and connection<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s important to be pleasant and kind to people, particularly in our present times, of course,\u201d Hermanowicz said. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s also important to recognize that when we do have a certain deliberateness with communicating with people, we could be accomplishing something very meaningful. We could communicate to people that they are important, that they matter, that we together form a community.\u201d<\/p>\n In his earlier research on the causes of undergraduate attrition, Hermanowicz found that evanescent interactions often influenced whether a student stuck it out or dropped out.<\/p>\n Former students who dropped out said that a meaningful encounter with someone at the university who showed genuine interest in their well-being might have helped them feel more like they belonged.<\/p>\n A lot of people are lonely. These sparks of connection can thwart feelings of not belonging.<\/p>\n Joseph Hermanowicz, Franklin College of Arts & Sciences<\/cite><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cIn the absence of such contact, they felt alienated and not noticed, which fueled or did not impede a desire to leave,\u201d he said. \u201cSo they left.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people are lonely. These sparks of connection can thwart feelings of not belonging in the various groups and organizations that we are a part of, whether those are friendship groups, work organizations or society more broadly.\u201d<\/p>\n Evanescent interactions are brief, positive and highly emotionally charged. They\u2019re so ordinary that people may not give them a second thought.<\/p>\n But they hold larger significance, Hermanowicz said.<\/p>\n \u201cEvanescent interactions are crucial to social life,\u201d he said. \u201cTwo people communicating empathy to each other and recognizing each other as important holds extraordinary consequence. It affirms our mutual place in human community.\u201d<\/p>\n The article was published in Theory and Society<\/em>.<\/p>\n Theory and Society<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You\u2019re walking through the farmers market with a screaming toddler tucked under your arm football style. You\u2019re tired, you\u2019re leaving without the produce you came for and you\u2019re embarrassed. You pass by an older woman on the way out, steeling yourself for judgment. Instead, you get a knowing smile and hear, \u201cWe\u2019ve all been there.… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":35153,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1436,60,777,1474,1],"tags":[1470,1471,1469,1473,1472],"class_list":["post-35152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hope","category-perception","category-play","category-surprise","category-uncategorized","tag-casual","tag-evanescent","tag-flowing","tag-fortuitous","tag-unexpected"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35152"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35152\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35154,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35152\/revisions\/35154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What is an evanescent interaction?<\/h2>\n
\nJOURNAL<\/h4>\n