Don't use your phone while you poop • Hacker News Board

Re: Don't use your phone while you poop

#181

Post by echelon » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 5:15 PM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #99

Henchman21 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right it has nothing to do with pollution or endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the environment. Yeah its definitely phones .

It's really not. Nor is it phones. Real estate is too expensive and rent is too high and people don't want to raise a family in a tiny apartment where both people have to work long hours. Combined with the fear TV sold to people such that they have to hover over their children 24/7 for most of their lives.

Real estate has little to do with this.

Our peers in other countries can live with dirt floors, no climate control or running water, and tarp roofing. And they have no problem having kids. Until they get the smartphone (which is now starting to happen).

People have always had far less and had more children. The wealth you have now is a modern phenomenon and perhaps a bit of a flukish bubble.

Your own dopamine blindfold is a "minimum acceptable happiness threshold". It's distancing you from your underlying biology.

You don't have to live where you do. You don't have to send your kids to an expensive school. You don't have to buy expensive things, the latest fashion, the nicest car. You don't have to go to the expensive trips and festivals and restaurants. You don't have to keep up with the neighbors. You need very few things.

The dopamine loop put you there. Consumption, comparison, craving more. Algorithmically targeted.

Re: Don't use your phone while you poop

#182

Post by NetMageSCW » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 5:25 PM UTC

echelon wrote: post #178

footydude wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reason we have declining birth rates is phones US Live births per 1000 people from Macrotrends: * 1960 - 22.70 * 1970 - 16.83 * 1980 - 14.99 * 1990 - 15.57 * 2000 - 14.18 * 2010 - 13.31 * 2020 - 11.99 * 2026 - 11.98 In the 30 years 1960 - 1990 which predate widespread adoption of mobile phones, we see a drop of ~7 live births per 1000 people. In the 35 years since then (during which mobile phones have become ub…

It's still dopamine. Dopamine + freedom. It starts with access to tv, movies, leisure travel, and disposable income. These things take you out of the evolutionary algorithm. Boredom, uncertainty, low dopamine, mind not preoccupied = having children. We identified this trend already in DINKs, it just turns out biology's adversarial algorithm is far more widespread than just that one demographic pattern. Smartphones ar…

Then they are a very poor one since they caused a decrease in the rate of decrease.

Re: Don't use your phone while you poop

#183

Post by OutOfHere » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 5:27 PM UTC

cesnja wrote: post #18

If you have time to read on the toilet, then (barring any disease or other disfunction) you’re not getting enough fiber.

Even with adequate fiber and correct Asian positioning, it can take at least five minutes to empty. Granted, I won't use the phone if I need to focus during this time.

Re: Don't use your phone while you poop

#184

Post by sodapopcan » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 5:27 PM UTC

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #134

sodapopcan wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, "tell me your family is bearable to be around without telling me."

evidently everyone assumes that kids mean you do the reading on the toilet whereas I meant 6 minutes is an eternity you will not be allowed to reach.

I assumed you meant parents and I was saying, "but also sometimes the kids!"

Re: Don't use your phone while you poop

#185

Post by OutOfHere » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 5:29 PM UTC

Please sanitize your phone's back side each weekend. 70% ethanol or isopropyl alcohol works reasonably, although it won't kill everything.

Re: Don't use your phone while you poop

#186

Post by kotaKat » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 5:29 PM UTC

huhtenberg wrote: post #41

Back when we lived without phones, we used to read instruction labels on all and any household cleaning products that were stored in the bathroom. I bet there too was some obscure newspaper column that advised against that. Yet, lo and behold, we survived!

pre-AI I recall a little gag website based on that in ~2013!

https://web.archive.org/web/20210612143916/http://backlabel....

Backlabel threw together a fake product name from a list and added in some warning symbols and various ingredient and instructions to give you some fake labels to read while you whizz away.

Re: Don't use your phone while you poop

#187

Post by trencedamp » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 5:33 PM UTC

Deebster wrote: post #78

trencedamp wrote: post #56

If you want a third reason, sitting too long gives you piles

That's the third reason given in the article (hemorrhoids == piles).

oops

Re: Don't use your phone while you poop

#188

Post by cpncrunch » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 5:40 PM UTC

squidbeak wrote: post #179

cpncrunch wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you think that if you have time to read your book then you don't really need to poop yet? Why not just wait until you're ready to go in?

Who says the readers are waiting while they sit? What's the rush out of there? Maybe this will make the concept easier for you to understand - Restaurant: sit, eat, drink, chatter, coats, car, home. Toilet: sit, splash, tinkle, read, wipe, wash, out.

Sure, but the actual splash act just takes a minute at most, and usually about 10 seconds for me. I don't understand how you can have time to read anything.

Re: Don't use your phone while you poop

#189

Post by aeve890 » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 5:42 PM UTC

sodapopcan wrote: post #50

aeve890 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eridians have figured out the solution for vulnerable moments: I watch, you shit.

Dogs also figured this out, and it goes both ways. This is why they stare at you when they're going, especially when they're puppies.

Since I can remember I wonder why dogs do that but it had never occurred to me that that was the reason. What the hell. How many other _obvious_ things I've been blind my whole life

Re: Don't use your phone while you poop

#190

Post by mcphage » Sat, Aug 08, 2026, 5:48 PM UTC

huhtenberg wrote: post #41

Back when we lived without phones, we used to read instruction labels on all and any household cleaning products that were stored in the bathroom. I bet there too was some obscure newspaper column that advised against that. Yet, lo and behold, we survived!

> Yet, lo and behold, we survived!

This is called survivorship bias. Sure, we survived—but that’s because you’re not including all of the bored people who died of reading instruction labels.