With her permission, I thought super-undergrad Mirna Ghazarian's mini-essay on "Writers Bump" was worth sharing. What's amazing is that she -- digital native -- and I -- who started off with a Parker 61 fountain pen but has been keyboarding since the 1980s -- still have one. Indeed, I also have an editor's callus up on the second finger of my left hand, from a bad habit since childhood while I edit. Survey in NetLab found that all 8 people had Writers' Bump. Nope, I don't want more data. Wikipedia redirects to Callus when I search for Writer's Bump. Not nearly as romantic or heroic. "Many people develop calluses on the middle finger of their dominant hand due to writing with a pen or pencil." Barry Wellman _______________________________________________________________________ S.D. Clark Professor of Sociology, FRSC NetLab Director Department of Sociology 725 Spadina Avenue, Room 388 University of Toronto Toronto Canada M5S 2J4 twitter:barrywellman http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman fax:+1-416-978-3963 Updating history: http://chass.utoronto.ca/oldnew/cybertimes.php _______________________________________________________________________ > Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2010 01:41:11 -0400 > > Hi Prof. Wellman! > > I just wrote this note on my Facebook page and thought I'd share. It seems > irrelevant, but I do believe I make a point at the end. I received some > interesting comments. Excuse the length, but it's a quick read! > --------------- > > This one has to do with writer's bumps (yes.. really..). I'll start from the > beginning. > > I used to write a lot when I was little--school assignments, short stories, > poems... you name it. Besides the fact that I enjoyed getting creative and > whatnot, I actually loved writing on paper in and of itself. Until this day, > actually, I prefer to write on paper when I can. So anyway, I remember being > in grade 4 or 5 and asking my dad what the bump on my middle finger was. It > wasn't super large, but it definitely was noticable. He told me it was > because I wrote a lot--from the way I held my pencil. > > Interestingly, the next day one of my friends at school asked me what the > bump on my finger was--to which I replied "It's from writing! :D" I > immediately received a "Ew... how come I don't have one? That looks so > weird." I looked at the bump and she was right. It DID look weird. It looked > like an ugly growth that made my finger look crooked. > > I remember going home that day and asking my dad how I could get rid of it. > "You can't--it can only get smaller, but it will always be there." Needless > to say, I was sad to hear that. > > So anyway, in the following years, I always tried to avoid doing things with > my right hand so people wouldn't notice the writer's bump. The bump got > larger during middle school and high school and I was really conscious of it > when playing the piano as well--hence why I never liked playing in front of > people. > > Now to the point of this note. A couple of weeks ago, my cousin turned to me > and asked, "Mirna.. what's this bump?" pointing to a small callus on her > finger. I explained it's a writer's bump and that it's caused by the way she > holds her pen/pencil. Then I looked at mine and *gasp* it was practically > nonexistent! > > I know that my writer's bump typically gets smaller over the summer months > (due to there being no school), but never has it been so small to the point > of being unnoticeable. So, now I feel weird. With fast-talking professors and > long assignments, I've become increasingly dependent on my computer to write > things down. I definitely write things down on paper less than I used to. So > I pose this question to anyone who reads this: > > Are writer's bumps becoming extinct? > >