A whole new level of Multi-tasking

Next to me, there is a woman talking on her phone. She was recounting her day to her friend, talking all of the oddities in her life. Sure, you think, we all do that.

She was talking, in the bathroom.

Everyone has their cell phones with them at every minute of every day, but talking in the bathroom? Is that really completely necessary?

The last thing you want to hear is the person in the next stall talking on the phone to her friend about whether or not she and her boyfriend are a good fit.

I have seen people do many things while talking on the cell phones. They shop, drive, and apparently now visit the restroom too!
Last week there was a gal in the rest room in Mendocino Hall pacing back and forth in front of the sinks because she was on the phone and talking with a friend. Their conversation didn’t seem to be worthy of being taken into the actual stall.
But apparently it was the pace in front of the sink worthy type of conversation. The difference? Who knows?

The interesting thing about this, is that it is not just young college age twenty-something’s doing this either-- grown adults do it too!

A while back I was in a department store and went to use the rest room and low and behold this woman walks in and she is talking. This is something that it not uncommon, since women generally visit the bathroom in pairs.

I realized she was on the phone when no one replied back after she paused. If that wasn’t enough she went into the stall, did what she had to do, flushed the toilet, and came back out, all while carrying on a conversation with her friend, about when they want to plan for dinner and when everyone should come over to her house…

A conversation about food. In a bathroom. On a cell phone?


This really takes going to the bathroom in pairs to a whole new level.

According to the US Census 2004-2005 Statistical Abstract of the United States, cell phone use is up over 300 percent and in 2003 159 million people had cell phones. By now we are probably up to somewhere around 255 million, maybe more.

That is a lot of cell phones out there to be used at various times. People literally are on their cell phones every minute of the day. I brought this up to my boyfriend, because I was so shocked when this first occurred. I wasn’t sure whether I should laugh, or feel just a little bit violated. I had to know. Do men do this too?

The look he gave me said it all, but he followed it up with an emphatic, “No!” So now, I am curious.

Is this more of a woman’s thing because we have an obsession with multi-tasking? Do we feel that by talking on the phone and using the restroom we are saving time somehow?


Hopefully the multi-tasking takes itself a step further and the women wash their hands!