Battery based living: Understanding how management of energy in portable technologies patterns our lives, consumption and ethics

By Dr Thomas Derek Robinson and Prof. Eric Arnould

From Marketing Theory

“The mobile phone has become a repository for many of the things that make us who we are. The mobile phone is where we play games with fellow enthusiasts, comment on our favourite musical acts, access our bank accounts, stay in touch with and remain visible to our network of friends, assess self-tracking information through step counters, pulse meters and sleep apps. We might even answer work e-mails when on the go. Real-world encounters draw in our mobile phones as we use WhatsApp and GPS tracking to locate each other in crowded spaces or engage with the evermore prominent Internet of Things and Augmented Reality.

So if the battery dies, we become socially invisible and de-coupled from all those extensions of our selves. Who are we without these digital connections? Thus, battery management structures our engagement with the cityscape. It affects interpersonal ethics. It is a feature of daily life. Thus, unintentionally, battery management now helps define the socially competent consumer.  

Social science has long assumed that consumers have few means to manage energy use. Studies of energy consumption in the home for instance shows minimal engagement with water and electricity infrastructure. Only disruptions such as a broken water main or downed electricity cables jolts consumers into awareness and proactive behaviour. However, as more and more technology become cordless, portable and battery based, unconscious energy management habits no longer suffice. Urban settings that demand long commutes outside the home and frequent long distance travel intensify dependencies on portable technology to maintain everyday commitments and connections. In mobility, the relationship between portable technology and the infrastructure which powers it becomes uncertain and the consumer must intervene to ensure continuity.

We interviewed 22 Londoners aged 23 to 57 who daily spend between 60- and 180-minutes commuting. Our informants structure daily patterns of consumer life to accommodate battery charging. The charge level on the battery icon becomes focal to interpreting their worlds. A full battery ensures consumerist possibility and potential. A depleted battery means social isolation. The battery icon also inspires mobility decisions as it plays a key role in assessing (enough) time and/or (too much) space. In this sense, the battery icon becomes a clock that counts down to a future deadline before which our consumers must find a socket to avoid disruption. Therefore, the battery icon impacts mobility choices through the city. Consumers edit their itineraries to ensure they can charge their phone. Rather than measuring time and space in minutes and hours, our informants measure time in space in percentages of the icon.”

Article details

Portable technology and multi-domain energy practices
Thomas Derek Robinson, Eric Arnould
First Published August 20, 2019 Research Article
DOI: 10.1177/1470593119870226
Marketing Theory

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