Hey, Wanna Hear Me Pee?

The number of students walking around campus while talking on cell phones is comparable to the number of goose droppings on an SIUE walkway. Whether in crowded hallways, a classroom prior to a lecture, or inside of an office, cell phone usage around campus is at an all-time high. People are so obsessed with staying connected that they talk on their cell phones everywhere, even in the bathroom. Who is so important that a person needs to talk with him or her while going to the bathroom? More importantly, who wants to talk with someone while he or she is going to the bathroom? Cell phone speakers are powerful enough now that they can pick up the smallest inkling of sound. Toilets flushing, faucets running, and various other “bathroom noises” are not quiet in nature, especially with a mass of students doing the same thing at the same time.

It is also disturbing for those who are going to the bathroom. When committing the act, a person enjoys envisioning said self in a private bubble. There is nobody overhearing anything that is being done. However, when a person is chit-chatting loudly on a cell phone, it is difficult to imagine the bubble that allows sound neither in nor out of the sitting space.

Also, think of the sanitary issues. Unless a person does not touch the phone after completing the deed, unwashed hands that are full of germs are placed onto the phone. That germ-filled phone is the same phone that is near the person’s face while he or she is speaking. If the person’s mouth touches the phone, those germs are now in the person’s mouth, about to infect the person full of only God knows what. Congratulations! Thanks to the compulsive need for social interaction, thousands of possible viruses are ready to commit the infection.

While goose droppings are fairly easy to avoid, habitual cell phone users are significantly more bothersome. Before one engages in meaningless conversation while on the toilet, think of the other people who are in the bathroom and of the person on the other end of the phone. Believe me, nobody wants to hear that.