In pursuit of the mobile that gives 110 per cent

Sports stars must suffer from particularly acute anxiety when it comes to the mobile devices – because while the rest of us only have to try and keep the phones charged to the normal maximum, footballers in particular like to have everything at 110 per cent.

But even for those who see maximum charge as a legitimate goal, there is a growing problem – and the social commentators have even come up with a name for it.

They call it low battery anxiety.

This is the phenomenon by which mobile phone and tablet owners get seriously distressed if their devices aren’t fully charged.

Apparently, so widespread is this issue that 90 per cent of us panic when battery level goes below twenty per cent fearing that our phones will power off just when we need them.

And when the little icon in the top right hand corner turns red, we turn into a blind panic as though our oxygen levels were now seriously under threat.

So much so that a recent survey revealed that one-third of smartphone users will ‘drop everything’ – and we can only hope that’s a metaphor – to head home or at least to an electrical socket to recharge our devices.

The survey was conducted on behalf of the electronic manufacturers, LG, so clearly we need to add a substantial pinch of salt – but if you’re honest, you know there is more than a modicum of truth in there.

You probably have a charging cable beside the bed, at your desk and in your car – and a spare one just in case.

Maybe you own one of those battery cases, the wrap-around protection for your phone that also acts as a secondary charger.

The irony here is that you spend a fortune on a new phone because it’s a millimetre thinner than its predecessor and then you wrap it in a silicon cover that’s half the size of a brick.

Either way, chances are the first thing you do on holidays is – once you arrive at your room and after checking the view – you open your suitcase, get out the adapter and power your phone back up to 100 per cent.

Buses and trains now have sockets so that passengers can remain fully charged as they watch downloaded movies or scroll through their social media, to avoid having to look out the window at Ireland’s green and pleasant land.

It’s like we’re afraid of mass amnesia and the only thing that will remind us of key events in our lives is our phone pictures – even if statistics would show there’s less chance of losing your mind than your mobile phone.

We used to measure the year by the seasons – now it’s the arrival of the new smartphone with technology tricks that allow us to make our own home movies that we will never see again.

Queues form for the latest phone; websites discuss advances in iPhones like they’d found a cure for cancer – and we all go increasingly insane trying to stay on full power forever.

For more on Dave’s struggle to stay at 110% see this week’s Tribune here.