Your phone is disgusting. It’s covered in poop. Here’s the easiest way to keep it clean.
You bring your phone everywhere. It’s pretty much attached to your hand this point. Thanks to your obsession, you know what else is attached to your phone? Fecal matter.
Your phone has 10 times more bacteria than a toilet seat, according to LiveScience. That shouldn’t be surprising, since a lot of people use their phone on the toilet. (A special shoutout to anyone reading this while pooping!)
What exactly is on your phone and how can you get it off?
The bacteria living on your phone
BuzzFeed swabbed and tested a bunch of phones for germs and found that, along with normal bacteria that’s found on hands and faces, there were also a few different kinds of disease-causing bacteria. Those more insidious types of bacteria included MRSA and E. coli. E. coli generally comes from poop. There might be poop bacteria on your phone… and it might be from a stranger’s poop. When you make a phone call, you put this poop-covered device on your face.
Now that you’re sufficiently disgusted, here are a few ways to keep your phone clean.
Wash your hands
The simplest way to keep your phone from getting yucky is to wash your hands regularly. Whatever bacteria is on your hands will get on your phone, so the cleaner your hands, the cleaner your phone.
Don’t bring your phone to the bathroom
This one is probably going to be a little more difficult. People like to be distracted when they poop — that’s why people keep magazines in their bathrooms. But you really need to exercise some self-control and keep your phone out of the bathroom. Your game of Dots will still be there when you get back.
Need more convincing? When you flush a toilet, tiny little poop-filled droplets of water spray all over the place. It’s so much poop that 60% of toothbrushes kept in a communal bathroom contained fecal coliform bacteria, according to one study. Just read the back of the shampoo bottle like old times.
Wash your phone
Scared that your phone is nasty? You can buy electronic wipes to keep your phone germ-free, or you could even get a special phone cleaner that sanitizes it with ultraviolet light. You can also use some diluted rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs for a more DIY approach.
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