There are many icons that are used to quickly communicate a simple idea. Some of these are obsolete in day-to-day life but are still quickly associated with what they represent. One example is the film director in a beret with riding pants (you know, the ones that bulge to the sides at the thighs).
The one I’m asking about today is tying a string around the finger as a reminder of something. This image is still used to mean “reminder.” I can believe it might even work, yet I have never known a single person to actually do this. Was tying a string around the finger as a reminder a fad at some time in the past?
It works just fine. Imagine you’re sitting around somewhere, and as you look at your hand unconsciously you notice a string tied around your finger. You’d suddenly realize “Hey, what’s going on here? Oh right, I myself did that so I wouldn’t forget to wash the car”, or wahtever.
(It might not work if you tie a couple of strings around your fingers each day, in which case it might tell you not to forget something, but not what that something was. Personally, I sometimes put my watch at the “wrong” wrist. Since I look at my watch many times a day, the missing watch will certainly tell me that “there was something I was supposed to remember.”
I don’t know if it was a fad, but I never did it, instead chooseing to simply put a dot of ink on the back of my hand, I know, you’re not suppossed to write on yourself, but whatever.
I never really thought about it before, but tying a finger around your own finger using only the free hand must be a bitch. I guess that’s to really ingrain into you the importance of the task at hand.
Thanks for the responses, especially Zeldar–but for you others–my question isn’t, “Does this work?” but rather, “Why is the ‘string on finger’ image universally understood to mean a reminder?” Was this at one time such a popular practice that everyone came to understand what it was for?