“That devices can be a source of disease transmission is not
a subject of debate anymore,” said a disease specialist studying the
persistence of bacteria on iPads. Much like Sami and I thought during our in
class microbe experiment, cell phones are being proven to be one of the
dirtiest things we touch throughout the day. Think about it. They go with us
everywhere. We touch them constantly. They are taken into public, school,
friend’s, and our personal restrooms, lent to snot-faced toddlers to keep them quiet during church, passed
around to share photos, and pressed against sweaty skin in gyms. We touch our
cell phones more than we touch anything else during the day, and take into
consideration how often you wash your hands. Even if you wash your hands after
the restroom, how often do you wash your hands after you touch your cell phone
before you eat? It’s really quite revolting.
When reading this article, I was somewhat surprised how
little time the author spent on the germy nastiness. The article was quite
clearly more focused on how to clean your devices than what you will actually
be cleaning off of them. She talks about how not only is it important to stay
healthy, but she zooms in more on how it’s important to maintain the resale
value. Personally, I would’ve rather heard much more about what I’m constantly
touching and putting up to my face, vs. how much my phone will be worth if I
keep it’s screen clean. “People don’t want any marks or grime on their devices.”
I don’t think the author did a fair job of teaching us the kinds of things this
grime actually has and why it’s super beneficial to steer clear of it. If she’s
trying to convince us to clean our phones, she would’ve been more effective
describing the accumulation of crap on our phones, “that is worse than what is on the bottom
of [our] shoes.”
Something to think about; this is the crap found on this phone…look at the difference in cell phone types…imagine what are on ours considering they are not only used for making calls anymore, but played with constantly….? Ew.
Picture: http://www.wormsandgermsblog.com/2010/07/articles/diseases/test-subcategory/biohazardous-cell-phones/
Information: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/02/technology/personaltech/cleaning-the-mobile-germ-warehouse.html?_r=0
Wow I’m glad I read this blog! Definitely very interesting in all senses! First off all when I saw this picture and read the description I couldn’t believe how much microbes there were! It was very shocking. After reading this blog I’m definitely paying attention to where I have my phone out. I mean I know I use my phone everyday, a lot, along with many other students, but I never really paid attention to how dirty they can be. Like the blog points out we use them almost everywhere, not only that but we use them to talk! This means not only do we get microbes everywhere on our hands, etc. but also on our face! I also agree that the author should have focused more on the microbes/bacteria phones have on them. I do like the fact though the author talked about how to clean your devices. I mean we all want to know what type of things live on our phones, but I would also like to know how to kill those germs/bacteria. After reading this blog I think I’ll be using my speakerphone way more often!
ReplyDelete-Angelo V.
You've provided an amazingly graphic description of what happens to cell phones--even I am grossed out and that's hard to do! Nice writing! I wonder how colonized by microbes my headset is!
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