Automatic Flush Toilets

The toilets at my work flush automatically.  I hate it. 

I've tried to figure out when auto-flush toilets first hit society, but after a ton of research, I couldn't find the date.  This is particularly interesting, because my main reason for wanting to have this information was to know at what point we, as a society, became so lazy that we couldn't even flush our own toilets.  Apparently it was at the same point that I couldn't research something as simple as a specific date because I was lazy and got distracted by... other things.

In addition to laziness, I suspect another reason for the popularity of auto-flush toilets is due to our fear of germs.  I also don't know exactly when this happened, all I know is one day people were washing their hands when leaving the washroom or before preparing food, like a completely normal, and well-functioning society and the next day, we're bathing in Lysol and hosing our kids down with windex.

"My child will never get sick!"

 

There's also the issue of the sheer amount of water the auto -flush toilet wastes (because you know it doesn't just flush once.  It flushes once when you walk into the stall, once when you sit down, once when you reach for the toilet paper, once when you stand up, and you get the point... It flushes more than once, basically, in case you didn't get the point.)

According to this site even a water-efficient toilet will use between four to six litres of water per flush.  And according to this site the average person living in sub-Saharan Africa uses 10 to 20 litres of water per day.  That means that, if our auto-flush toilet flushes even only twice instead of once just because we moved the wrong way, or sneezed, or reached for toilet paper, we've used more water than what someone in Africa would use for their entire day.  Why?  Because we don't want to touch anything in a public washroom.  Or because our arms are too sore from carrying around our American Apparel shopping bags to maneuver the flusher.  Or because some people think that, when you use a public washroom, rules of societal norms and common-sense no longer apply and flushing is optional.  (FYI- it's not.)

"I'm so tired from carrying this bag in one hand and posing by seductively glancing over my shoulder!  Thank goodness my toilet has an auto-flush because I need my other hand to hold my hair back!"

So we've already established that, for the amount of water that auto-flush toilets use, we may as well just go sit in front of a bunch of starving kids in Africa and eat buckets of KFC chicken. 

And what about that guy dousing his kid in Lysol we looked at earlier?  Should he really be so grateful for the auto-flush?

Well, according to this guy, the filthiest place in our office is our phone.  And in our house?  Our kitchen sponge.  This makes sense.  I can't really remember the last time I changed my kitchen sponge, and I don't think I've EVER wiped down my phone receiver.  However, almost every time I walk into the public washrooms at work, there is some hard working individual scrubbing the toilets and polishing the sinks.

There's also this to keep in mind.  Basically, by over-sanitizing and over-cleaning ourselves and children, we are actually WEAKENING our immune systems and creating more illnesses and allergies in future generations.  And honestly, they have enough to deal with.

So every time your toilet automatically flushes for you- and not necessarily when you're done your business, but maybe while doing it, or before doing it, or before and after and during it- please take a moment and ponder the following three points.

1.  We are lazy.
2. We have an unjustified sense of entitlement. 
3. We have an irrational fear of germs.

This is YOU, society!  I have just held up a mirror to you!  Look at how scared you are!  

Oh, I'm also supposed to put something in here about why I love the topic being discussed.

Y'know what though?

No.