Thursday, August 19, 2004 Ng: Very important thumb By Wilson Ng Wired Desktop
NEW PDA. After so much thought, I decided to get a new PDA, even if my phone was already a PDA.
A PDA is a personal digital assistant, which is used to keep your schedule, addresses, task list, and other memos—lately also a gadget to keep your pictures, music, email, document files, spreadsheets, and voice messages.
The main consideration was the new PDA had a small thumb keyboard, which the existing one did not have.
I have always been a scribbler, and many people complained my email, or even my short text, was always too long. Unfortunately, I could not write fast using only a numeric keypad, or write properly using a stylus.
I also have a portable keyboard for the PDA, and believe me, one of my previous articles for this newspaper was written with the PDA with only a two- inch screen.
Indeed, for many of us, the thumb has evolved into a preferred tool of 21st-Century communication, whether using two thumbs on a small keyboard as I am doing, or using one thumb to crank out short text messages on a cell phone.
TEXT EXPLODES. Incidentally, text messaging is exploding everywhere. Even in the United States, it was estimated that 2.6 billion text messages were sent in the first quarter of this year, meaning about 30 million text messages a day. While this is still lower than the over 100 million Filipinos do every day, it nevertheless is a big jump.
In fact, according to a speaker recently, the letter “K” which is a shorthand for OK is sent over 30 million times a day over the Globe network alone. That letter is obviously 24K gold for the cellular networks here.
In the United States, the old people are still not using text as regularly, but the young ones are.
In Japan, they have a new name, “oyayubi sedai,” which means the thumb generation.
Just to promote texting, Singapore Telecom sponsored recently a contest, in which they had a fast text messaging contest, and in that contest they allegedly were able to break the Guinness Book of World Records for text messaging.
The champion was Kimberly Yeo, a 23-year-old student, who typed this message in 43.66 seconds: “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.”
Try to see how long it will take you to do it. I am sure somewhere a Filipino might just be able to do that faster.
In Singapore, it is not unlikely now for many students to send as many as 1,500 text messages a month. Undoubtedly, the thumb is now the new tool for social and commercial relationships.
It was reportedly crucial for the marriage of Dalani and Ahmed Tanahy. Dalani is based in Hawaii, while the husband is based in Egypt. In order for them to keep in close touch, they exchanged up to 50 text messages a day.
I am sure Filipinos are not behind in this.
Are there problems for those who text too much, just like the carpal syndrome for those who spend too much time on the computer keyboard or typewriter? So far, there have not been any significant reports.
The thumb is said to be more flexible, but there are now people who complain that texting gives them calluses.
I am sure if we don’t stop texting, more problems may come—maybe the pain will be in the wallet when we see the bills, or when the government finally decides to tax it.
(email: wilson@esprint.com.)
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