Have you argued with your spouse over unanswered calls or texts? Have you asked a total stranger to borrow a charger? Have you skipped the gym to instead charge up your smartphone battery?
If the answer is yes, you may be a victim of low battery anxiety.
We’ve all felt that pang of anxiety when glancing at our smartphone’s home screen and noticing that red battery icon as the charge dips below the critical 20 per cent threshold. But now LG has gone the extra mile, conducting an online survey of 2,000 smartphone users, living in the U.S. and 18 or older.
The reason behind the survey is clear: LG is marketing its LG X Power smartphone, a 5.3-inch Android device that has a 4,100 mAh battery – about 20-25 per cent larger than your typical smartphone battery. So while the survey has a self-serving element, there’s a ring of truth to it and the results are amusing enough.
Consider these five signs that you could be suffering from low battery anxiety:
- 39 per cent of those surveyed have asked a stranger to charge their smartphone
- 23 per cent have argued over unanswered calls or texts with a significant other
- 22 per cent have ordered something at a bar or restaurant just so they could plug in to a power outlet
- 33 per cent have skipped the gym to charge their smartphone
Or contemplate these worrisome behaviours of many smartphone owners:
- 32 per cent have made a U-turn in order to return home and charge their phone
- 71 per cent won’t lend their charger to someone else – even if it’s their backup charger
- 33 per cent have delayed a date or meeting because of a low battery
If LG were to do a survey about smartphone-related anxiety in Canada, perhaps it’d consider stress induced by fear of going over monthly data caps.