FINGER PLAY

Every morning, I wake up, turn on the TV, listen to the weather report, and the latest Presidential Twitter, and then I turn it off.

I don’t tweet, twitter or twiddle—-not even my thumbs. However, nowadays, babies go from thumb to pacifier, and then back to thumb again.They skip verbal communication and go from “MaMa” and DaDa” directly to “Hashtag.”

Twittering can become a bad habit. Even a well-thought out e-mail can often become misconstrued. With modern technology, it’s just too easy to shoot your words out there before you have given yourself time to properly digest them. It’s called, “Ready! Fire! Aim!
Consequently, it’s better to measure your words before causing a verbal tsunami.

When I was a teenager, I got angry with my little brother for using my lipsticks as substitute crayons. So, I wrote a note to my Mother saying, “You should have only had one child!” BUT, I didn’t deliver it. I got over being angry, because my baby brother was a cute little fellow. Also, I was sure that Mother would choose him over me precisely because he was so cute.

When someone has something important to say, it’s better to say it person-to-person, eye-to-eye, or not say it at all. Of course, that  causes a big problem because people addicted to their cell phones or tablets can’t make eye contact. It’s impossible because their eyes are glued to their thumbs, and the anatomy of communication is now overly dependent on thumbs.

I always considered the thumb as being the big toe of the hand. People who twitter and tweet have not only become dependent on their thumbs, but totally misunderstand the value of the big toe.

Consequently, in 2017 the “Little Piggy” nursery rhyme, would go like this:

“This Little Piggy went to Goldman Sachs.
This Little Piggy stayed home with his desktop computer.
This Little Piggy was a Vegan, so he didn’t have roast beef, and
This Little Piggy had none, because the cows gave off too much methane gas.
 And, the last Little Piggy cried “wee-wee-wee” all the way home, because that’s where he left his phone charger.

And, you thought thumbs had it bad.

Esther Blumenfeld (What’s so social about Social Media?)