Yeah… I wasn’t using the wrist strap…

By Stephen Munn | August 10, 2008

So for the sake of discretion, let’s just call him… a relative who works for a large electronics retailer as a repairman. This relative reports that he has responded to several calls for TV repairs where the screen had been damaged by a certain famed airborne white missile. After some denials and pressing by my relative who’s seen such damage before, the owner finally admitted that, “yeah… I wasn’t using the wrist strap.”

It’s kind of hard to feel sorry for someone who can’t be bothered to attach their wrist strap. I’ll admit I don’t use mine when playing Dr. Mario Online Rx (which has no motion controls), but it’s so important that people understand how easy it is to lose your grip on that controller, particularly with something like Wii Sports Bowling. No amount of Kellogg’s Smart Start Strawberry Oat whatever cereal can make you strong enough to hang onto that thing if you aren’t at least using the Wii Remote Jacket.

While people flinging their Wii Remote into their TV is old news, that’s kinda what makes it news. People are still making this mistake, and going by this casual sample, it is not uncommon. It’s clear that reading the warnings on-screen is too much for some folks, and I would expect that while Wii Remotes now ship with the Remote Jacket on around them, people are taking them off and leaving them off.

Looks like a long term problem. When do TVs get their own force fields?