alt Hacker NewsPooping is interesting. Having a toddler reminded me how pooping is this uniquely vulnerable, sensitive time for humans. I think a lot of us use books/phones/etc to distract ourselves from a sensorily intense activity. I'm not saying that's a good or bad thing, just noting it.
I will say that playing my Nintendo DS on the toilet many years ago gave me hemorrhoids that still persist decades later. Don't camp on the toilet.
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We address the vulnerability by retreating to a private space. The phones come out just to address boredom. Sitting on the toilet is boring.
> I will say that playing my Nintendo DS on the toilet many years ago gave me hemorrhoids that still persist decades later. Don't camp on the toilet.
Right. People spending 30 minutes sitting on the toilet are clearly not feeling all that vulnerable. But, yeah. Don’t do that.
Yes, the only other closest parallel is maybe giving birth without reducing the intensity of an experience of child birth…
And yet the toilet is one of the most connected places in the house. I love this BBC "Thinking Allowed" podcast episode on toilets that makes the point powerfully:
> pooping is this uniquely vulnerable, sensitive time for humans
GRRM chose that vulnerable moment to kill off a character.
I remember Nintendo doing a commercial about that!
You are not alone! Starting with Freud and the anal stage, many psychologists have concerned themselves and linking this not with sexual but with mortal aspect of the human condition