newbie with a quick question

I'm super new to the droid community and loving it. I'm learning a lot from all these threads. I came from :blackberry: storm and now have a thunderbolt. Just like most, I can deal with the battery issue and the muffled video recordings. Coming from a storm that would constantly give me the load screen wheel, I have noticed that I would occassionally get the load screen wheel here and there on my thunderbolt when I would unlock my phone. I was wondering if this is normal or if there is a problem. If this is a problem, what should I be looking for to fix this?

I'm sure this has been asked a million times but I still appreciate people's opinions but should a newbie like me root my phone and if yes, is there an less intense way to root my phone?