2419: Hug Count

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Hug Count

Title text: I've never been that big of a hug person, but it turns out I'm not quite this small of a hug person either.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a HUGGABLE ROBOT. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon. If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

The joke is that in 2020, when the pandemic happened, everyone had to social distance and avoid contact with strangers. Giving out a hug would violate these protocols, and thus be violated by few.

Transcript

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Discussion

I don't know how this makes me feel. I just don't hug. Maybe a couple of female relatives as I leave the traditional Christmas gathering (that didn't happen in 2020) because they expect it of me. But some societies (I'll namecheck the Italians, but there are many others) would possibly break those totals in a day (pre-Covid) just by going to the market-place and sealing deals with the local tradespeople. So my chart dipped drastically ast year, but not so much by absolute count. (No, not looking for sympathy, or virtual hugs, just saying...) 141.101.77.126 23:33, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

What happened in 2007? Seems like a sizeable spike. Being in a reception line at a wedding, for instance? 173.245.54.211 23:43, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

No citation. Is this Randall's personal chart, do you figure? Ekedolphin (talk) 00:18, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

The title text would certainly suggest so. Fyndegil (talk) 19:32, 26 February 2021 (UTC)

2007 was the year of the xkcd meetup, which involved a lot of hugs, some of which may have involved Randall. Randall also moved from Virginia to Massachusetts that year, which may have resulted in separate small groups of people hugged in the same year. (Both of these facts are mentioned in his blog post from that October 1st.) 108.162.219.56 01:35, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

The Free Hugs Campaign peaked between 2006 and 2007.

2011 is the year Randall announced his gf's cancer. This might mean more people hugged him in support. 2010 might have been a time when some people close to him already knew about that (before the announcement), this would explain the big number in 2010, too. In 2015 he went on a book tour and had many signing sessions, where people might have hugged him. --162.158.129.59 03:54, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

Mine is between 0-3 every year since 4th grade. Primarily my sister, my mother, and now my niece. I am nearly old enough now to go through a midlife crisis. Any other true anti-social people here just now realizing how little you get out? 108.162.237.134 09:22, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

I'm probably in the 10-15 range most years, but around 5 for the past year. Being mostly confined to the house really hasn't bothered me, though, so I might well qualify as anti-social... 162.158.78.108 12:42, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

Thinking about it, there are just three months in year (and not even WHOLE months) I'm getting out less with covid than without. Winter vacation with possibly shopping for it, summer vacation with possibly shopping for it, and then I'm going on one con. Outside of those three opportunities I don't really mind AND nothing really changed. I'm still angry for losing those three opportunities. Also, well, outside of family the con tends to be only opportunity to hug someone ... -- Hkmaly (talk) 13:53, 3 February 2021 (UTC)

Whether or not this is significantly less for some people or not, it's still sad for me. Of course, being an extrovert might have impacted that, but to me, it just represents everything, in general, that's happened. Char Latte49

It's sad about 2020, but appears to be hopeful about 2021. He already has 2 hug in the first month. If that trend continues, it should end up being an average year. And it may accelerate as more people are vaccinated. Barmar (talk) 18:13, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

If he has a small set of people he can get hug under Covid rules, likely he'd hug them early in the year, and the number would look normal at first but then not increase much in later months. Just saying: hope is good, yes, but the number of hugs in January doesn't really mean much. --Pi one (talk) 19:23, 2 February 2021 (UTC)

I did a quick statistical analysis of that, and neither 2020 nor 2021 are an outlier (above lower fence), but 2020 is unusual (z-score of -2.05)162.158.155.82 21:45, 25 September 2023 (UTC)