Matchstick Message #23: We Want To Know When They Aren't Still Typing

from Tara Raffi to Student Information Requests date Sun, Jan 23, 2011 at 11:43 PM subject Matchstick Message #23: We Want To Know When They Aren't Still Typing

Dear RIM,

Remember when you were a little girl or boy (kind of like a blackberry when its still green and hard to pull off the vine, you know?) and you would be on AIM talking to that 8th grader you have a crush on (Rebecca went to the bathroom... so tell me... do you have a crush on her)? Remember the absolutely riveting, breath-taking, exhilaration of Instant-Message drama? The he-signed-off-move, or the on-purpose-ignoring or, my favorite, the IM-all-her-best-friends-but-her-after-eight-minutes maneuver. ANYWAY, what is one thing that enabled the central drama of our internet lives? The magical ability to know when the other party is typing!!!!!!!!! SO MUCH MORE EXCITING!!!! And of course, because the best is never the best for long enough, the necessary addendum to this wonderful gift is that we can know when text has been entered by The Other, but no typing is happening. Namely, we know when they are staring at the screen wondering what to say. Brilliance.

My friend Mikey just got great advice for starting work this month; "people are pigeons". This is very wise advice but I would venture to add on that people are children too.

So with all these baby pigeons wandering around cyber-space, they are going to want to be fed small snacks and to relish in the drama of Entered Text. BlackBerry is the best poised to bring this non-innovation to cell phones because BBM is the fastest messaging phone application. You've given us notification of when they are typing, and when they have read our message, but the extra half-step of Entered Text really must be made if you expect to satisfy our current connectivity expectations. I'm not suggesting anything cutting edge. Just becoming caught up with the standard of AIM circa 2001.

So please, tell us when the person we are in a heated BBM conversation with is stumped. Or when our friend we asked a question to stopped typing an answer. There's no point of staring at the screen and waiting if they aren't actually still typing.

Sincerely,

Tara Raffi

Drama Enthusiast

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