Is Your Phone Battery Controlling Your Life?

Written by Peter Nowak

As your phone battery starts to fade, do you start to feel panic set in? Have you started planning your daily travels around the next time you'll be able to charge?

According to a study of commuters by researchers at the Cass Business School in London, you wouldn't be alone. Turns out, some of us are starting to view our daily trips in terms of the time and distance between locations where we can charge our mobile devices.

"People no longer think about their destination being 10 kilometres away or 10 stops on the tube. They think about it being 50 per cent of their battery away," Thomas Robinson, the study's lead author, said in a release from the Cass Business School.

Full Battery = Positive Outlook

"Respondents discussed how a full battery gauge made them feel positive and as though they could go anywhere or do anything. Anything less than half full, however, induced feelings of profound anxiety and discomfort," Robinson added.

Researchers interviewed a small sampling of 22 individuals in London who spend anywhere between an hour and three hours a day commuting. They found that many suffered from something they termed "hysteresis of the battery," which revolves around the "unpleasant unpredictability" of battery-based technology and the infrastructure that powers it.

When users left home or work with a full charge, they reported a sense of contentment or ease. If they left with only a half charge, they admitted to greater anxiety and a purposeful scaling back of activity on their phones.

Commuters reflected on the meaning of the battery icon "by assessing contextual information about infrastructure access and suitable energy management practices such as conservation or seeking out sockets," the report said. "Thus, the battery icon becomes part of the respondent's experience of the mobility burden."

The report jibes with previous studies of how people feel about the batteries in their devices. In a study released a couple of years back by electronics maker LG, nearly nine out of 10 people said they felt panic upon seeing their phone battery hit 20 per cent or lower, while more than 85 per cent said they charge their device up to three times per day.

The Fear Of...

The anxiety over our phones has even spurred its own nomenclature. Nomophobia is the fear of being without a cellphone or beyond cellphone contact.

Nomophobia actually has deeper roots and is connected to loneliness, according to Şengül Uysal, who has studied the phenomenon among students at Eskişehir Osmangazi University in Turkey. She has found that social anxiety is directly related to the possible loss of a smartphone.

Social situations aside, battery anxiety can be prevalent among anyone — including investors — who may feel the need to always be connected. One way to lessen your battery stresses is to ensure your power stays above that anxiety-inducing 20 per cent level for longer. Here are a few easy ideas that can help:

• Familiarize yourself with low-battery mode, which most mobile devices have. Such modes often dim the screen and turn off unimportant functions.
• Since it's generally the screen that uses the most battery, manually turn the screen brightness down and close all apps that may be running in the background.
• Turn automatic email syncing off, which keeps the phone from continually connecting to the wireless network looking for new data.
• Turn on airplane mode when you're in an area that's got poor signal strength.
• Consider carrying an extra charging pack that you can plug into.