When the battery on your cell phone starts to flag, what’s your go-to response? Borrow a colleague’s charger, divert home to get yours? Maybe you’re among the 22% of smartphone users who have ordered something in a cafe just to have the excuse to plug in and charge up?
It might not be a glamorous (or medically recognized) illness, but ‘Low Battery Anxiety’ can strike us down at any moment. A 2016 LG Electrics study found that a whopping 9 out of ten respondents had felt some form of ‘panic’ when their phone batteries dropped below the 20% mark. Of those polled, 41% were most anxious at the thought of missing a phone call and, given that 23% had experienced arguments with loved ones over unanswered calls and messages; that fear may be well founded.
It’s not just our relationships that suffer when our charge fails. The smarter our phones get, the less capable we are without them. We rely on them to coordinate our day; hail cabs, navigate, access tickets, look up addresses, work on the move, monitor our health… the list is endless! And the more we rely on them, the quicker the battery dies.
Are your palms getting sweaty at the thought? Have you checked your battery status since you started reading this article? That’s ‘Low Battery Anxiety!’ But, before you reach for a borrowed charger, remember this; according to the good people at LG Electrics, 71% of those around you would begrudge lending you their juicebox.
The cure to this crippling anxiety, then, is to keep a charger on you at all times. It’s a trick the city slickers have mastered. A study conducted across four major US cities (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago) showed that most respondents charged their phones more than once a day. NYC topped the chart, with an average of 2.6 charges per day. But most lithium-ion batteries have a project lifespan of between 300-500 charging cycles, so multiple charges a day could have a negative impact on both the short-term health of your smart phone and, ultimately, its longevity. Wait to charge until the battery status hits red, however, and you could extend that lifecycle by a whopping 1000%.
So, the solution is to untether yourself (and your smartphone) from the wall socket. A portable power bank means you’ve got juice on the go, and no need to plug in ‘just in case’ and clock up charge cycles. Of course, a power bank is no small inconvenience; they’re cumbersome, and struggle to make it passed security at the airport. But why carry another device when your wallet could charge your smartphone? Sound too good to be true? Meet Volterman, the must-have device that’s calling time on ‘low battery anxiety.’
References
Battery University: How to Prolong Lithium Based Batteries:
http://www.batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
Business Insider: You have been charging your smartphone wrong:
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-way-to-charge-your-phone-2015-9
Daily Mail: Do YOU have ‘low battery anxiety’? 90% of us panic about losing power on our phones:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3607598/Do-low-battery-anxiety-90-panic-losing-power-phones.html
The Huffington Post: ‘Low Battery Anxiety’ Affects 9 Out Of 10 Of Us Says Survey:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/low-battery-anxiety-affects-9-out-of-10-of-us-says-survey_uk_57430bdee4b0e71ef36d80af
The New York Times: Should You Charge Your Phone Overnight?
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/22/technology/personaltech/charge-phone-overnight.html?_r=0
Article by Volterman
Campaign: https://igg.me/at/volterman/
