Thumb Culture

(Thanks to Jon on flickr)

For quite some time now we have known that there have been worries that kids will (and do) suffer from enlarged thumbs if they text too much.


These ideas are suitably and scornfully presented here by Coyote in his blog 'Howl at the Moon'.
Indeed the BBC has reported on the phenomenon known as 'Blackberry thumb.'

Prensky talks about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants in a well cited article that is worth bookmarking if you don't already know it. Digital Natives are those who are comfortable with technologies, who use them as part of their everyday lives. Immigrants are those who must make the effort to learn the stuff and who have to be inducted into the culture. I am keen to say though , that Digital Natives got that way partly through their own curiosity, their own volition. Prensky himself points out:

They have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, videogames, digital music players, video cams, cell phones, and all the other toys and tools of the digital age. Today’s average college grads have spent less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading, but over 10,000 hours playing video games (not to mention 20,000 hours watching TV). Computer games, email, the Internet, cell phones and instant messaging are integral parts of their lives.

I feel a bit weary of hearing the young discussed as if they instinctively, almost in spite of themselves just 'know' about operating and using digital technology. Rather, they were probably inspired to find out by its intrinsic interestingness. And as Prensky points out, they have invested TIME in LEARNING.

It's about time that schools were able to provide such inspiration without being held back by the strait-jacket of twentieth century curicular. Thery need time to learn themselves and they need time to think about developing suitable pedagogies to fit the new climate/culture. Blah blah blah.

Below are two immigrants I spotted in Miami - Digital Immigrants that is; helping each other to get to grips with texting.




Earlier this week I checked out this book on 'Thumb Culture' having read a review by Jennie Bristow on SPIKED. She praises this 25 chapter edited collection (even though it is written by academics) saying for example:

Overall, Thumb Culture is a positive appraisal of the increasingly complex role played by mobile phones in our society. Chapters examine the speed at which this
technology has developed already and its potential for the future, and there is a clear sense throughout the book that mobile phones have indeed come to mean a great deal for society, and that understanding this relationship is critical for
understanding how we view current social attitudes towards progress, communication and co-operation.

Well I would go along with a book that looks at this kind of stuff and with 25 chapters it seems it is jam-packed. Bristow quotes from a chapter about teenagers' use of mobiles/cellphones:

Teenagers' moblog contributions - with pictures illustrating their breakfast, their journey to school, their last party, or their pets and siblings - might seem trite, but so is life,

I agree with this to an extent and would want to add, as I explained in my chapter in this book, (edited by Marsh and Millard), that teenagers like to keep in contact with each other, partly just to show they are sharing the same life rhythms. Their text messages to each other, (on MSN or on text) are not necessarily intended to report news at all,but to just 'hang out' online or via their cellphones/mobiles. They like to just eport in themundane. But a cture is never JUST a picture and as I argued in my paper, (awaiting review), about the photo-sharing website Flickr, people's fascination with digital cameras is giving them a chance to take different types of picture (detailed close ups) and to see the world around them in new ways.




Anyway I do want to get a copy of Thumb Culture, but at the moment Amazon will keep you waiting 4 - 6 weeks with an additional charge for getting hold of it. And even on the other side of the pond at .com. they are asking you to wait a similar amount of time. So I'll have to keep a look out.

In the meantime if you have not got hold of Ito's Personal, Portable Pedestrian, then you should do so. It is of course very readable and excellent. However, if you are strapped for cash, (or even if you are not), go and download this article by Cynthia Lewis and Betina Fabos. This time it is about Instant messsaging, but is along similar lines as textng through phones and thumbs. You'll love it.

Just two more things. A report on how the Iraquis give the thumbs up to US soldiers and what it means here.
And finally:
Our music machines are getting smaller these days too and so instead of precariously balancing a needle into the groove of a vinyl single, or LP, (as I used to do in the seventies), my husband can fumble with his thumbs to hear a crystal clear rendering of the horrible Clash's horrible song 'London's Burning'.