WHAT DO YOU DO IN THE BATHROOM?
WHY YOU SHOULDN’T PLAY WITH YOUR GADGETS AND GIZMOS
Have you noticed how technology has changed all of our mundane daily “jobs”?
When I was younger, before cell phones and iPads and whatnots, I used to read the backs of shampoo bottles in the washroom while I sat on the toilet. I know, that seems VERY creepy and personal, but thats how I passed the time in there.
I grew up in a household of 5 people with ONE bathroom, so typically, within minutes, someone would be banging on the door, interupting my “me time”. I don’t know of anyone with ONE bathroom anymore, at least not typical homes within towns or cities. Most RV’s and new campers have more than one toilet. Luxuryhomes are now being built with upwards of 5 or 6 toilets.Toilets have become a very prominent part of our society within the past decades.
But, I digress….back on track
As a young girl, teen, new mommy, and human being, I have always used the bathroom as an “escape” of sorts from the rest of the family and the rest of the world, even if it was just to sit and read the backs of personal hygiene containers to clear my head and do my thing. I learned so much about Parabens and Ammonium Chloride and Sulfates and Glycol. (Actually, no I didn’t, but I knew they were ingredients in shampoos and soap).
That was the 80’s and even early 90’s. Now the bathroom has become an extension of our offices and / or entertainment room. I have been in our work washroom and heard people changing Stock Market investments in the next stall. I know people who talk with their besties while they are doing a number 2, (just for support I guess?) Professional people dressed in power suits answer emails, check Facebook and Instagram while they pee, JUST IN CASE THEY MISS SOMETHING. I have heard deals being made “mid stream”, contracts being negotiated and parents checking on their children at daycare, all while peeing or “other” in dirty bathroom stalls. Then there are the gamers, who play Candy Crush or Virtual Poker, or whatever new Apps they have put on their gizmos.( I enjoy Crosswords while I sit)
You can LITERALLY do banking on the toilet now, you can watch movies or videos, you can check your Medium stats, or dating sites….it goes on and on. Why EVER leave the bathroom? You have everything right at your fingertips.
I would say, the average person, with no devices would take approximately 5–10 minutes to get in, do your thing, wash up, and get the hell out. Now, people sit on the can for what seems like hours! We, as the human race, have resorted to muti tasking to the point that we now POOP and Grocery shop! You can POOP and order take out at the same time! You can shop on Amazon, or Wish, or anywhere really, whilst doing your choice of 1 or 2 on the throne. That, in itself is highly disturbing.
Then there are the “Woohoo girls” that spend time in public bathrooms at Night Clubs, to take photos of themselves. The BATHROOM SELFIES! Nothing sexier than a girl all dressed up in a tight dress, hair done, and lipstick on point, JUST to stand in front of a dirty old sink or bathroom stall door to “duck face” or “resting Bitch Face” and post their pics publicly and proudly on IG, Snapchat, or FB.
The question is “WHY”…The answer, I suppose would be “BECAUSE WE CAN”
NOW FOR SOME LIFE ALTERING INFORMATION:
You really should put the toilet seat down.
And while it may also put some household arguments to rest, the real reason to close the toilet lid is a phenomenon known as a “toilet plume.”
When you flush a toilet, the swirling water that removes your waste from the bowl also mixes with small particles of that waste, shooting aerosolized feces into the air.
Low-flow toilets have decreased this risk — they don’t gush or blast as much as other types of johns — but countless old toilets are still in use today and can really spew.
Philip Tierno, a microbiologist at New York University, says that aerosol plumes can reach as high as 15 feet.
“It is a good idea to lower the seat, especially if the bathroom is used by multiple people,” Tierno told Tech Insider.
A study published in the journal Applied Microbiology in 1975 (before the adoption of low-flow toilets) found that whatever you put in your toilet can stay there long after you flush. After seeding a toilet bowl with potentially infectious bacteria and viruses, the researchers found that the toilet dispersed the microbes far enough to settle on other bathroom surfaces, like the floor, the sink, and even your toothbrush.
TOILET PLUMES! Let that sink in….
So, with that said, what are our phones covered in when we leave the washroom, especially those public ones with NO LIDS? Yep, POTTY PLUME GERMS ! There’s pee and poop on your phone! We don’t WASH our phones when we wash our hands, right? As soon as you touch your phone, there is really no point in hand hygiene!
So, now that you are thoroughly grossed out, and wanting to throw your peepee’d phone in the trash, or spray it with Disinfectant… what have we learned:
> Flushing is nasty and spreads nasty stuff all over everything, including your toothbrush, hair, phone, and whatever is within a 15 foot radius.
> People spend entirely TOO much time in the bathroom, doing very strange things with their “gadgets”
> Technology has advanced us into a world where we can get rid of food on the toilet as we order new food on our phone.
> The 80’s was a much cleaner decade and girls didn’t take selfies in dirty public washrooms- we had Polaroids and pre-club parties in our kitchens
> Finally, it has taught us that we spend TOO much time multi tasking, and really need to LOOK at how we spend our time more effectively so we don’t have to “work” while we poop. As pretty as some washrooms are, they are NOT the office or the living room. If you need the peace and quiet or the hideaway and take your phone with you, clean that thing off after you go!
It makes you really think long and hard about eating at restaurants with all of your friends’ phones on the table after they had a “Flush Plume” while they posted on Instagram “We are out for Dinner….SELFIE”.
< THEY RETURN FROM THE WASHROOM AND PUT THEIR POTTY PHONE ON THE TABLE! IF ITS NOT ON THE TABLE, IT GOES IN THEIR PURSE TO COVER ALL OF THEIR PERSONAL ITEMS IN …“YUK”>
Or think about the times after your phone has been in the washroom with you and you set it on your clean kitchen counter where you prepare supper.
Technology hasn’t made our lives any easier. It has made us so focused on our “phone lives” that we can’t pee without them and we actually rely on our “private time” in the john, to scroll and sneak screen time when the boss can’t see you.
I was guilty of all of the above. I would take a break from my desk, to go pee and check my phone, that is, up until I discovered there are Magical Disgusting Poop Plumes that attack my phone( and apparently my hair). The toilets at my office have no lids, and they AUTO FLUSH. You do not have enough time to get the hell out of the stall before PLUME of GERMS gets you.
The Plume gets me every single day. But, now ..it WON’T get my phone.
