August 12, 2004
All Thumbs, Without the Stigma
Matt Richtell for The New York Times, writes about how our thumbs have evolved into a preferred mode of 21st-century communication - thanks to text messaging.
"The thumb is the new power digit," said Edward Tenner, a science historian for the Smithsonian Institution who has spent time thinking about the interaction between hand and machine.
Dr. Tenner, in "Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology", said that the thumb's role in operating keyboards became prominent 250 years ago with the advent of the musical keyboard, but then was diminished in stature by banishment to the space bar of the typewriter. Now, he said, it is "enjoying a second renaissance."
[...] So important has the thumb become on gadgets in Japan, where text messaging caught on earlier, that a certain demographic group is referred to as oyayubi sedai, "the thumb generation."
Dr. Tenner pointed to findings that young Japanese, accustomed to using their thumbs to send messages, are now using them to do other tasks - like pointing and ringing door bells - traditionally the realm of the index finger."
Richtell omits to mention the cross-cultural study which made headline news, published in 2002 by British technology researcher Dr Sadie Plant -- Director of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit at Warwick University in the UK. Her findings outlined that children's thumbs are stronger and more nimble because they spend so much time texting and playing computer games.
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