You can learn a lot about a person by how regularly his or her phone battery dips into the single-digit red zone. Because in this day, a dead phone battery can leave you helplessly detached from all crucial life details: your map, your schedule, your work, your contacts, and more. A draining battery prompts fear and frustration, as well as a frantic hunt for a power outlet to remedy the situation.
In this ounce of Persuasion fast chat, Erin Straza and Hannah Anderson examine the way our mobile devices chain us to power outlets. Wherever we are—coffee shops, airports, public venues—a low battery can send us into survival mode, hunting for an open outlet. Sadly, many a hunter’s hopes have been dashed, when, upon spotting a free power outlet, find it is merely a sticker. Some sad soul is playing jokes upon the desperate, which prompts us to ask all sorts of questions about our relationship to devices and power. Is this stress about a draining battery necessary? Have we simply grown too dependent on (or addicted to) our devices? Are the people who place power outlet stickers truly evil?
Listen in, then continue the conversation on Twitter @PersuasionCAPC or in the CAPC members-only community on Facebook.