A rule of thumb

A British scientist has put her thumb on an unanticipated side effect of young people's love of all things electronic.

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Dr. Sadie Plant of the Cybernetic Culture Research Unit at England's Warwick University says people aged under 25 are using their thumbs much more than previous generations because they have been raised with a steady diet of Internet, computer game and cell phone use (see www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail/0,1958,534_308_23,00.html). Plant travelled to cities around the world and observed that young people are using their thumbs to do things that used to be the domain of the index finger, such as pointing and ringing doorbells. In Britain, she notes, youthful thumbs now type roughly 1.4 billion text messages on cell phones every month.

At an ergonomic level, more injuries to the thumb are occurring, but this number may increase as young people who spent their formative years playing computer games and sending text messages begin entering the work force. She says they will be primed for repetitive stress injury due to the amount of strain that they have already put on their hand and thumb muscles.

“While a generation ago teenagers wrapped themselves in the phone cord, almost as if it was the umbilical cord, well, today the umbilical cord is cut,” says Derrick de Kerckhove, Director of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology, University of Toronto. “Today's kids are using cell phones and text messages — they are part of the ‘Thumb Tribe.’ ” — Peter Wilton, Willowdale, Ont.