If You Take Your Phone Into The Bathroom, Know This
We’ve heard it over and over: we are a society that is attached to our phones. We bring them everywhere and feel naked without them, and I’m as guilty as anyone. I’ve also heard some say they can’t do much without it — including pinching off a loaf.
Hey, you might even be pooping right now as you read this. I mean, it’s a great opportunity to multitask — you can go in the loo, lock the door, and get shit done. Literally.
But if you find yourself grabbing your device as soon as your turtle emerges its head between your cheeks, you need to know something: Your phone may be covered in shit. Seriously.
I know, it’s probably the last bit of news you wanted to be reminded of today, but for fun, let’s delve into the truth here.
I mean, sure most of us (hopefully) put our precious phones down when we wipe, then wash our hands before picking it up again, but it might not be enough.
According to Live Science, your phone has ten times more bacteria than your toilet seat does. TEN TIMES. And I’m not talking about normal bacteria we can fight off, either. I mean bacteria that can make you really sick, like E.coli. We clean our toilets all the time, because they are nasty as hell, but how many times do we clean our cell phone? Not nearly enough, apparently.
The unsettling truth is when you flush the toilet and don’t put the seat down, shit and germs literally spray everywhere. You might not wash your hands well enough, or perhaps you touched a contaminated door knob and then touched your phone. And if you’re bringing your phone into a public restroom, you have no idea what it can come into contact with when you set it down on the toilet paper dispenser on the side of the sink while you wash your hands. ICK.
And how many of us enjoy scrolling through our phones while we eat things like chips or french fries? We don’t need a reminder of how much we touch our phones, put them up to our faces, and do things like prepare food, eat, and play with our children, but for effect, let’s visualize that for a moment.
Okay, that’s enough now.
Buzzfeed surprised 20 of their employees by testing their phones — they gave them no notice so no one had time to prepare by doing quick wipe down or anything. They wanted to see just how dirty devices can get. And the result? Every single phone showed some sort of germs and bacteria. Every one.
Disgusting, right? Not only that, it’s one more thing you have to clean clean daily, but clearly, for the sake of our immune system and our sanity, it’s important.
So maybe we should all stop scrolling Facebook or catching up on emails while feeding the porcelain bowl a brown treat. Or we could get real and admit that isn’t going to happen because our phones are our favorite laxative. I don’t know. You do you.
In any event, cleaning your phone with with a homemade solution of 60% water and 40% alcohol will help rid your phone of germs and other gross stuff. Just spray it on a paper towel and wipe your phone down every other day or so. There are also electronic wipes available. But if those options don’t put your mind at ease and you fear you are missing some of those pesky poop particles, you can invest this super phone sanitizer that keeps your phone germ free with ultraviolet light. You pop in there for 30 seconds, and you can be sure your phone is safe to handle.
But the experts say the very best way to keep our hand-held Metamucil clean is to wash your hands thoroughly and often. Don’t freak out too much ( I know we are all kind of freaking out right now), just be aware that your phone does have germs, and clean it on the regular.
