"In Tokyo, so many kids are pounding at new electronic gadgets with their thumbs they’re known as “oyayubi sedai” — the “thumb generation.” Nokia Corp. sponsored a contest for the fastest Finnish thumbs, where 2,700 players competed to thumb tap the highest score in the “Snake” game included on Nokia phones....

Being “all thumbs ” used to mean you were clumsy. But phones, wireless e-mail devices, and all the other hand-held gadgets featuring “thumb boards” are turning thumbs into universal index fingers for a generation of teenagers, young adults and high-tech businesspeople.

Some young people now point and ring doorbells with their thumbs. Thumbs are growing more muscled and dexterous, according to a new cross-cultural study conducted by Sadie Plant, a free-lance British culture and technology researcher. 'The relationship between technology and the users of technology is mutual,' Ms. Plant says. 'We are changing each other....'

Thumbs began their quest for technological supremacy over index fingers in the late 1980s and early 1990s on the joysticks and hand-held controllers of video-game systems. Jim Joseph, an administrator at an early-childhood center in Manhattan, remembers playing the original “Legend of Zelda” back in 1988 on his Nintendo for so long he would develop what was came to be dubbed “Nintendo thumb “: a sore, burning pain at the base of the poor digit. “I would play up to three hours, but would need a break at some point because it would get really frustrating,” says Mr. Joseph, now 22. In 1990, cases of what is known as “Nintendinitis” were described in the New England Journal of Medicine....

But thumb typing involves some growing pains. Working on keys half the size of an average thumb tip, the user must cultivate a delicate touch. For those whose thumbs aren’t petite, there is this “splat problem,” says Michael Ryan, a New York lawyer who uses his BlackBerry during down-time on conference calls. A “splat” occurs when a big old thumb hits two or more keys by mistake. Mark Guibert, vice president of Research In Motion, the company that makes the BlackBerry, says the oblong shape of the BlackBerry key was designed to maximize the surface area for the thumb to hit the key. The key to avoiding splat is to use only the very tip of the thumb , an acquired knack....

In response to a host of RSI complaints, U.K. telecom network Virgin Mobile recently undertook a campaign called “How to Practice Safe Text” in concert with the British Chiropractic Association. To avoid injury, it recommends a series of hand-squeeze exercises with a “texterciser,” a foam rectangle that looks just like a cellphone. There are also shoulder shrugs, wrist and neck stretches. Mr. Barrett says his thumb pain has diminished somewhat since he started doing the exercises and cut down his text messaging-to around 300 a month." [MSNBC, via PDABuzz.com]

Fascinating article! I tried typing with my thumbs when I was playing with the Sharp Zaurus, and I can see how it would take some type for someone my age to get used to it, although it was definitely usable. The kids on the other hand....

And now you have a new slang term to throw around: the splat. Searching for an appropriate link for the word "splat" brought me to Thumbing Headquarters, a site devoted to text gaming on cell phones. It has sections for Text Games, WAP Games, and Chat & Flirt. If I could, I'd sign up for cell phone games in a heartbeat. Well, not the game Splat, but probably Vampire Slayer, Thunderbirds (yes, that Thunderbirds!) and of course, M-Trivia. And speaking of trivia, they even provide a TH Thumb Facts & Trivia page!

Such games are pretty simplistic now, but these are the baby steps into the future of wireless gaming.