5 important reasons not to take your smartphone to the toilet

We used to read a newspaper in the toilet or, at worst, the inscriptions on the air freshener bottle. But the future has come to every home, and now we are sitting on the toilet with a smartphone in our hands.

Social networks, mail, news — where else, if not in this secluded place, you can safely wander through the expanses of the world Wide Web. Meanwhile, experts warn against such a pastime and consider it dangerous.

In 2018, the Bankmycell website conducted a survey among 2114 Americans and it turned out that 80% of men and 69% of women take a smartphone or tablet with them to the bathroom. At the same time, the percentage of fans of toilet Internet surfing increases as the age decreases. Only 11% of pensioners enjoy the benefits of civilization while sitting on the toilet, while among young people this number is 9 times higher.

The journalist of the Israeli publication "La-Isha" Dafna Arad indicated five reasons to refuse to use a smartphone in the toilet.

1. Even more bacteria

Everyone knows that the surface of the phone is simply teeming with bacteria. You wash your hands, but tell me, how often do you thoroughly wipe your smartphone with disinfectant wipes? The University of Arizona found out that there are 10 times more microbes on the body of the gadget than under the rim of the toilet in a public toilet!

If you keep your gadget in a leather case, it is 17 times dirtier than the device in a public restroom, and if it is in a plastic case — it is 6 times dirtier than the toilet. Only wristwatches can compete with phones in the field of unsanitary conditions. When used in the toilet, the device does not become cleaner at all. If you wash your hands after going to the toilet, but do not wash your phone, then where is the logic in this hygienic event?

2. The risk of getting hemorrhoids

Scientists have long found out that prolonged sitting on the toilet increases the likelihood of getting hemorrhoids. It is believed that the optimal time for the body to sit on the toilet is 6-8 minutes. The longer a person spends time in the toilet, the greater the intestinal tension.

Israeli journalists conducted a survey in which 1,200 residents of the country participated and found a direct relationship between an unpleasant illness and prolonged sitting on the toilet with a gadget. On average, Israelis spend 24 minutes a day sitting on the toilet. But 8% of respondents admitted that they usually stay in the toilet for 1-2 hours. A quarter of them have hemorrhoids, while those people who do not sit on the toilet for more than 10 minutes, this disease is 2 times less common.

In 2009, Israeli gastroenterologists Dr. Omer Goldstein and Dr. Ron Shaul found out that reading books in the toilet gives a positive result, as it allows you to relax. At the same time, the smartphone acts diametrically opposite and strains the body, interfering with the work of the intestines.

3. Threat to the life of patients

Experts believe that the habit of doctors to visit the toilet with a smartphone can pose a threat to the lives of patients. From 75 to 94.5% of the gadgets of clinic employees have microbes resistant to modern antibiotics on their surface. The survey showed that 87.5% of doctors are aware that their electronic devices carry an infection, but 57.5% of them have always ignored the need to disinfect the gadget.

Dr. Inbal Fuchs told the journalists of the magazine "La-Isha" about his concerns about smartphones:

Medical workers are instructed to keep their smartphones not in their hands, but in their pockets, not to remove them at the workplace and regularly wipe them with alcohol. Students from Ben-Gurion University conducted a study and proved that the neglect of these rules by medical workers increases the duration of hospitalization of patients, and sometimes poses a threat to their lives.

4. The smartphone does not allow you to relax

Most modern people have a fairly busy schedule and, as funny as it sounds, the toilet is one of the protected places of recreation. Looking through the mail or flipping through social networks, sitting on the toilet, we deprive ourselves of that little respite that we need so much.

Separately, it should be said that correspondence from the toilet, even if you do not take the ethical side of the issue, can hardly be called a good idea. You will not be able to focus on a business or love message, and this can have negative consequences.

So if the body has given you a signal that you need to leave, then you need to take it as a command to take a break and leave the gadget on your desktop or in your pocket. Be alone with yourself and your thoughts, at least in the toilet.

5. Your gadget may be affected

The last reason to give up the phone in the toilet is purely technical. The smartphone can simply fall into the toilet and fail, temporarily or irrevocably. Statistics show that this happens not so rarely. One out of 5 women and one out of 8 men admitted that their smartphone had been in the toilet at least once. There are also those who have repeated this trick more than once.