It must be exhausting to be ruled by fears. Mr. Monk, Detective Monk, knows all about it. He has a lot of them. Whether the fear of buttons is one of them, I don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me.
It sometimes happens with young children that they're afraid of buttons, like the ones on the television. While they're fascinated and enjoy watching television, there's also the fear of using one of the buttons to, for example, turn the volume up or down or change the channel. The reason? And no, this incident has nothing to do with not being used to television, or modern society. Sometimes technology, or perhaps simply touching a button, is unpleasant. After all, you never know if it will do what you want.
