We’ve written about blogs on toilet habits in the past. Some of these articles explore how lavatory habits predict human personality types and those which are simply unhygienic. Every human possesses and exhibits some degree of toilet habits that have been learnt over time or newly acquired. Some could be considered good whilst others may be bad from a hygienic standpoint. Opting to go to the toilet when your bladder is full or using the correct posture whilst sitting on the bowl both belong to the positive section of the toilet balance sheet. Flushing with the toilet cover-up is never an ethical toilet behaviour. This act can send microbes and bacteria flying through the thin air and safely landing on surfaces within the toilet environment. There is a catalogue of unpleasant toilet behaviour that is constantly exhibited daily. Smartphones are big contributors to some of these unsatisfactory toilet etiquettes. People are prone to texting, reading an email or playing their favourite game whilst doing a number one or two.
Did you know the smartphone can be a blessing and a curse at the same time if we fail to establish appropriate boundaries around its use? We all know there are exceptions to some rules with regards to how we conduct ourselves when using a toilet. Do you answer the phone whilst using the toilet? That’s a question that does not warrant a straight ‘no’ or ‘yes’ answer. Different factors determine if allowing the call to slip into voicemail might be the best option. Or, answering the phone may be the only option due to the nature of the call or other factors which we will examine below.
Factors that necessitates the answering of your phone whilst in a toilet
Health emergency: This is a no brainer. It might be a 911 call, your GP telephone appointment or a health expert communicating with you about a current health emergency that requires intervention. It could be due to that medical appointment you’ve been waiting for in four months, failing to take the call whilst in the toilet will mean you’ll have to reschedule to a later date. Receiving a call in this instance is understandable and will not deduct points from your scoreboard.
Family Emergency: Your child attends a nursery and you seldom receive calls from the staff. On a rare occasion, the phone rings and your heart is sent racing whilst wondering what may have happened to your little one to warrant an unscheduled call. Receiving the call at that moment may be an instinctive and reasonable action for anyone to do. Alternatively, if you’ve got a second to ponder and hygienic concerns are prime on your mind, calling the nursery immediately after use of the facility may be logical.
Both reasons normalise and justify the use of a mobile phone whilst doing a number one or two. The conditions of the facility also support the need to receive a call during a health or family emergency. A busy public toilet with people queuing to use your stall is not a good environment for receiving an emergency phone call. Communicating in such an environment will reveal personal information to a group of strangers using the given public unit. Secondly, it will be quite challenging to receive a call whilst wiping your backside or washing your hands. In this instance, it will prove beneficial to have an extended ring on your mobile device to allow for sufficient time to dry up your hands before handling your mobile device.
Overall, it is important to continue adopting and applying hygienic toilet etiquette. Using your mobile phone whilst answering the call of nature is not a pleasant habit. This behaviour is acceptable during emergencies highlighted above
