June 27, 2005

Do You Thumb Your PlayStation at Me, Sir?

by Nick Montfort · , 6:25 pm

Proof that young researchers can bolster their publication records when they write about video games: The BBC reports that South Africa’s main medical journal has accepted an article on “PlayStation Thumb” for publication – one written by a 13-year-old girl.

Her study found that 28 of the 60 boys and 17 of the 60 girls she spoke to played regularly.

Of these, eight boys and seven girls complained of symptoms such as redness, tingling and blisters.

The unfortunate thing is that Safura Abdool Karim, the author, does not herself own a PlayStation and finds them “a waste of time.” So here we have another case of game research being done by a non-gamer…

6 Responses to “Do You Thumb Your PlayStation at Me, Sir?”


  1. Zach Says:

    C’mon, man! The real story is a 13 year old girl getting published in a major peer-reviewed journal! You can’t be cynical about that. The girl was doing medical research on Repetitive Strain Injury, not the cultural effects of video games. And I happen to agree with her; video games are a waste of time.

  2. josh g. Says:

    I think somebody didn’t get the joke.

  3. sak Says:

    Dude, I’m that girl and for your information I have played playstation several times. Just because I’m not stupid enough to spend a wad of cash buying one and then fork out more to buy the games and gadgets, doesn’t mean that I don’t know what I’m talking about. Look I’m not trying to do something that will look good on my CV okay. I’m just trying to piont out that there are going to be problems. It’s just to prove that I can do something instead of just waiting for others to do stuff and then dissing them without the facts. What are you doing for the world?

  4. nick Says:

    I’m making jokes that some people don’t get.

  5. Safura Abdool Karim Says:

    That’s a pretty impressive talent. Not

  6. scott Says:

    I do bite my thumb at you, sir.

    If you prick my thumb, does it not bleed?

Powered by WordPress