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Dear RIM,
In the spirit of my last Matchstick, I will now talk about a time when I think the screen should light up. When we get messages.
First, I must acknowledge the wonder of the indicator light. Classy, discreet, and gracefully urgent, the flashing of that little red light intimately binds us BlackBerry Users to itself, much in the same way mothers can feel their growing child kicking in the womb or cows can tell when it is going to rain.
It is wonderful because it alerts us in the most unobtrusive way--no vibrate, no eye-catching graphics dancing across the screen--so when we are in meetings, or in class, or at the dinner table we can be alerted about our communications by a seemingly inert object.
But what about those times when your BlackBerry is on silent and you want to be alerted about a text message? What if your BlackBerry is an uncomfortable distance away from you (2 feet)? The thing about a discreet red light is that it is hard to notice (discreet)!!! Either you have to be directly looking at it, or you have to be trying to concentrate on something else while continuously monitoring your BlackBerry out of the corner of your eye (as I am doing right now in the library, waiting for Gary to text me back). It's just annoying. Your brain has no rest from the endless slavery of the BlackBerry, especially because every time you move your head and the light bulb reflects across your screen for a split-second you grab your phone... but it's just a false alarm.
A simple and non-innovative solution to this is to have the screen light up when we get a text message or BMM (or whatever it is that we want to be notified about--the beauty of self-determined settings). That way, we can see it farther away in our peripheral vision--a luxury. Most people want to be able to know when they are being contacted, even when their phone is on silent, without having to have ESP connectivity (faster than EDGE).
Sincerely,
Tara Raffi
Illumination Enthusiast
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