THUMB

I was talking with someone today and they were unsettled - even aggravated - that people text and Twitter during meetings and that it really does seem rude, distracting, dishonoring, etc. I'm putting some words in their mouth when I say that, but it was the basic gist of what they were feeling, I believe.

I did not completely disagree. At least, I totally understood where they were coming from. I have sat in staff meetings with our own group when as many as five different people were on their gadgets 'doing things.' At first, it kind of irked me. "What are you all doing while I'm trying to talk to you?" Very often, when I'm done speaking on a Sunday and finally get to my cellphone, I find there are Twitter messages from one or more of them commenting on the message, texting a quote from the talk to others, etc. I don't know if I should be irritated or honored.

I have watched my teenage daughter fly with her fingers across her phone without looking while she texts a friend. She is doing this WHILE she is talking to me and looking right at me.

Culture watchers call them the "Thumb Generation," perpetually connected to the world via digital devices they navigate with their opposable thumbs. But they aren't just cell phones. You don't even CALL them that anymore. Subway riders in Korea wave their gadgets over the turnstiles in the train station to pay their daily fares. Others flip them open and rotate them 90 degrees to watch satellite TV. On the same screen they 'page' thru an e-book version of their school textbook followed by listening to the latest musical hits. They send an average of 66 text messages a day, snap pictures and send them to friends and play online games where they might run a virtual grocery store. They cannot imagine their lives without 'the device formerly known as the cell phone.'

It seems we need to learn to work with the new generation who has a thirst for connectivity and is plugged in like never before. 'Generation Y' is wired with all 10 fingers.

Technology isn't new, but this 'Generation Y' is immersed in a way different from earlier generations who grew up with calculators and Apple II Plus computers. This technology is as vital as one of their organs. Rather than push them away, we might need to learn to adapt to their way of doing things, conducting more functions online, multi-tasking, interactive everything. The availability of cutting-edge, high-tech tools will directly correspond to productive and happy people that work around us. Including my daughter.

And be blessed.