Last updated April 12, 2019
The great majority of Americans use cell phones for “talking, tweeting and typing” even when on the toilet, according to the results of a new survey. Three fourths of Americans who have cell phones have admitted to the habit, with men more likely to do so than women, marketing group 11mark says.
Sixty-three percent of all new and old cell phone users surveyed admitted that they have answered a cell phone call while in the bathroom, with 41 percent admitting to having made a call from the smallest room as well. Perhaps astonishingly, pretty much anything a cell phone can do has been done on the toilet as well, with 67 percent saying that they have read a text, with 39 percent even using the internet.
Men have more of a tendency to use the cellular devices in the bathroom, with 20 percent saying that they have engaged in calls related to work, versus just 13 percent of their female colleagues. The problem, perhaps predictably, is that high tech hygiene is not following in the popularity stakes, as while 92 percent of cell phone users say they wash their hands following using the bathroom, just a paltry 14 percent say that they clean their cell phone as well.
Peggy Post from the Emily Post Institute says that the use of cell phones in the bathroom is rude, both to the person on the other end of the call and to others attempting to use the facilities.