Thursday, April 30, 2009

Weird finger test for Gen Y

Hold your palm up as if stopping someone from passing. Now ask the other person to pretend your palm is a door bell and ask them to press the bell.

Baby Boomers use their index finger, but Gen Ys use their thumb. Apparently, it’s do with their texting and game playing habits. (I've added a hypothetical middle finger for Millenials!)

11 comments:

Stephen Downes said...

Was there a point to the third image?

Donald Clark said...

That's the Millenials!

Anonymous said...

Fairly confident that it would only relate to console gamers (which always use game-pads where the primary input is the thumb).

A minority of every generation prefer PC gaming where the typical mouse+keyboard combo strongly favours fingers.

Judith Christian-Carter said...

I'd love to see the data for this finding Donald.
Judith

Donald Clark said...

Anonymous
Actually the primary cause is not 'games' but texting on mobile devices and iPOD controls.

Judith
Came from Anand Chandrasekher, head of Intel's ultra mobility group. Stated through BBC News report from CES.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7822564.stm

The upsycho said...

Initially, I thought "Aah! Twaddle." It seemed so illogical to me to use the thumb. So I made a beeline for my 17 y.o. who used his thumb as you predicted. I haven't been able to test my 15 y.o yet, since he's out this evening.

But, I know many people who would use their middle fingers to press a doorbell, so perhaps your sensationalism is not quite as sensational as all that.

The upsycho said...

Quick update. I tested out your theory on my younger son, too. He used his index finger. Small sample, I know, but we're on 50% accuracy, here...

Donald Clark said...

If the hypothesis is right, younger children who are not yet obsessed with texting and games will still use index finger. Thanks for the feedback.

Curious Bunny said...

My dad would almost certainly use his middle finger (with which he points/follows text). But he was always peculiar ;oP

My husband (30 years old) would use his index finger. I would use either my index or thumb, depending on how I was feeling at the time. Neither of us is much of a console gamer.

Blogger In Middle-earth said...

Kia ora Donald!

My 15 y o, who is ace on mobile and iPOD (and games) didn't prove the rule. She pointed as I would. But then, my daughter's exceptional!

Catchya later

Rina Tripathi said...

My thirteen-year-old is all the time on the computer and loves gaming.He used index finger. My six-year-old plays pet society and is good at gaming on mobiles and on the computer, she used index finger. I work a lot on the computer but I do not play games. I used index finger too. Seems this is not too related. Interesting thing to figure out though.