Has this ever happened to you, dear reader? Where you wake up to the dreaded sound of your smartphone hit snooze, fall back asleep for those sweet 5-10 extra minutes of sleep, then have the f***ing alarm go off again, except this time, you switch it off.
You tell yourself, “It’s fine, I’m up anyway, don’t need the alarm to ring again.” You lay there, fall back asleep, and you’re awoken through some sense that something’s wrong. It’s too peaceful compared to your other mornings.
You’ve fallen asleep for another hour.
This exact scenario (or some variation of it) happens all too often. To the point that people have made memes about it. No one likes an alarm ringing, but everyone hates it when your alarm doesn’t wake you up.
If you think about it there’s quite the simple fix for this. Just make your phone smarter. This isn’t something in our control, considering we’re just consumers, consuming a product basically fed to us. But how about thinking about the little things?
Like an alarm clock that knows you haven’t woken up yet. Considering that most people in the modern world use their phone as an alarm clock, it’s not unreasonable. Alarm clock tech hasn’t evolved as much as it should have, if you ask me. Remember the time we were hearing about alarm clocks ringing, then proceeded to run around the room for you to chase and switch off yourself?
An alarm clock app, which is able to sense motion, usage awareness, and basic understanding that the person who switched off the alarm hasn’t moved for the past 20 minutes, so they probably should ring again, is that too much to ask for? I mean, it’s obvious.
I’ve yet to see a smartphone do this.
It’s less so a gripe on the alarm clock industry, but one with smartphone manufacturers. They’ve taken the time to craft out unique and albeit useful new features that they’ve forgotten to expand on the existing. As things get smarter, our existing technologies should also get smarter. It’s the little things that count, little quality of life enhancements that often go unappreciated in a fast moving tech industry. Maybe it’s just me, maybe everyone else doesn’t have a problem with waking up.
But one things for sure, I definitely need these kinds of innovation back.
P.S. Sorry I was late today boss, my alarm clock didn’t ring.
