Eye contact and people standing close/ touching

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I know there are enough eye contact topics and this may have already been asked, but, does it feel to anyone else that eye contact is just way too intimate??

I mean it's intense and awkward, but would you use the word intimate too? I would.

Also, people standing close and doing the touching thing, even in a platonically friendly way, just feels intimate in a way that is inappropriate. It's creepy.

Does anyone else feel the same?

I never got the "overly intimate" feeling about eye contact. It just feels predatory to me, like that creepy look that Ted Bundy had. I do feel like the standing close or touching is overly intimate (like someone is trying to cop a feel), although that happens less now that I'm middle-aged and fat

For some reason it feels super intense - like a loud noise, sandpaper or a photo flash - but *for me* not intimate. I've never understood how people think that eye contact = some magical transference of the other person's emotions, other than overt social signals. By overt I mean things like: a woman making eye contact with a guy, holding it for a sec, then dropping her gaze in a submissive way. Or making eye contact and holding it as a show of dominance. Or quick glances accompanied by some subtle facial shift - the gaze indicates "this is important, it's a message" and then the quick expression change usually conveys a message, like a human emoticon.

Eye contact just feels awkward to me, and I *hate* it when people invade my personal space without my permission. I have my boundaries, and I like them to be respected.

I have heard it described that way, but not often.

I am overly neurotypical and I get along well with autistic people. I get this "overly intimate" feeling if I look into an autistic person's eyes. Like I've accidentally peeped in on them getting dressed or in the bathroom. I try not to make too much eye contact when I'm speaking with autistic people, and will usually look somewhere else on their face. It can be distracting when we're trying to have a conversation.

It doesn't bother me at all.

BUT

When strangers in public look at me or stand too close to me, it makes me really anxious.

Making eye contact with people happens subconsciously to me, but when passing strangers in the street eye contact suddenly becomes really scary and I become all conscious of it. Unless a stranger comes up to me to ask for directions or something.

I'm very protective of my personal space, and find people being too close to me very uncomfortable, especially if they are out of view. I feel almost like I can sense an "aura" around them that's interfering with mine - it feels like a physical sensation.

Eye contact does feel a little "over-familiar" to me - OK when there is mutual respect, but uncomfortable from people I know less well. However, mostly I find that if I get engrossed in speaking or listening, it's just that I completely forget that it is expected, and doing it distracts from my thoughts - I really have to consciously remember that other people consider it important, even after 40 years of practice.

I don't find eye contact particularly comfortable and the only eye contact that i give that isn't a incredibly quick glance, I like to save for that someone special in my life...
So in a way eye contact for me it is quite a intimate thing.