Thumb Tribe: Oyayubizoku

[Douglas G. Wilson]

 >Cool new word, meaning people who use digital devices: PDAs, cell phones, GPS
receivers, and, I guess, calculators.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/magazine/22CONNECTIVITY.html

"I have joined what the Japanese are calling the oyayubizoku (the thumb tribe),
named for the organ we so compulsively poke at our tiny keypads."


Very cute and current.

Incidentally, "oyayubi" = "thumb" apparently < ["oya" = "parent"] + ["yubi"
= "finger"] .... Apparently the thumb is considered senior among the hand's
family of fingers?

Why "thumb tribe" instead of "finger tribe"? Apparently the image is of
one-handed operation of a portable telephone, TV remote-control, etc., with
the thumb acting on the keypad. This was not immediately obvious to me ...
apparently I'm still mired in a bygone millennium.

-- Doug Wilson