All Thumbs!

Today at the eye doctor, the young guy who was going over the cost of my contacts was using his thumbs to punch numbers into the calculator. It stuck me as odd, because it looked like he was texting someone for the answer to his calculation.

Then I came home and was harshly beaten by my own son on Flight Control (an excellent iTouch app). As I watched the patricide take place, I noticed that he was using his thumb to maneuver the planes to safety, while I use my index finger.

In trying to defend of my index finger, I vaguely remembered something about Ken Jennings attributing at least part of his Jeopardy winning streak to using his index finger instead of his thumb. So I fired up my Google search engine only to find this article where Bob Harris interviews Bradford Rutter, biggest winner in the history of Jeopardy. Bob asks Brad the very question I'm pondering:

Bob: Thumb or index finger?
Brad: I'm a thumb guy. I know a lot of people like yourself swear by the index, but I'm a thumb loyalist.

Being a digital imigrant, versus my son, the young guy at my eye doctor's office, and Bradford Rutter, who are all digital natives, I can't help but wonder if the texting, calculating, flight controlling, buzzing-in thumb is the new opposable thumb. And if so, I better learn how to use it, before I become extinct.